Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo was once convinced Alex Pereira would knock out Israel Adesanya at UFC 281, but has now changed his tune.
Cejudo is a former bantamweight and flyweight champion in the promotion, and his opinion carries a lot of weight in the sport. As such, it surprised fans when he backed the relative MMA novice Pereira to knock out Adesanya and take his middleweight title and claim the title in a division where the champion has never lost.
"With all due respect to Israel Adesanya, I think Alex Pereira will knock him out at UFC 281," Cejudo wrote in a tweet on September 27 that featured a clip from his YouTube channel. "This matchup reminds me of the first time Max Holloway and Jose Aldo fought. Pereira is the better striker."
His theory was based on having seen Pereira viciously stop Adesanya in their kickboxing days to win his second bout against the Nigerian fighter, but he admittedly had not watched either fight fully. And after sitting down to watch them on his YouTube channel, Cejudo has admitted he was wrong to back the Brazilian.
He hasn't however, backed Adesanya completely, saying that the middleweight champion will need to stay the aggressor if he is to control the fight. He has become known for his counter-punching and allowing rivals to come to him in recent performances, and Cejudo believes that must change in order to win the fight.
"Israel allowed him to come in and he just caught him," Cejudo said while analysing footage of the pair's second kickboxing bout. "He caught with something that is just his bread and butter; a left hook. Looking at this fight I think my perspective has changed from actually watching it and I do think Israel has more of a chance now.
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"But if you really analyse and pinpoint that fight it's 'who is it that is going to be the aggressor?' That's the person who is more likely going to win. Because when Israel was bringing the fight, he had more success. When this man [Pereira] was bringing the fight, you saw what happened.
"It comes down to who is it that has not just the skill and desire, but the word that comes to mind is just 'will'. Who has the biggest will? Who's willing to go five rounds? I'm starting to see fatigue from this man watching him fight now. Israel was still good, but at the very end Pereira ended up winning.
"This fight changes my perspective just a little bit, which makes it a little more confusing. But I am going to say that the aggressor, the person that fights more and brings the fight more is much more likely going to win it because both of these guys find it hard to fight backwards."
