Israel Adesanya wants to fight kickboxing rival Alex Pereira in his next UFC fight after labouring to a decision win over Jared Cannonier.
The UFC middleweight champion comfortably took care of No.2-ranked Cannonier in front of a capacity crowd at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena last night to retain his belt. But fans were disappointed with the lack of action between the pair at times, as Adesanya went to the cards for the ninth time in 12 fights.
And he has guaranteed a barn-burner in his next one when he takes on the fast-rising Brazilian star, who earlier in the night got rid of No.4 contender Sean Strickland within a round to earn his spot as a top contender. The pair fought twice in kickboxing, with Pereira famously obliterating Adesanya in their rematch, leaving him needing oxygen after a vicious KO.
“Look we know who’s next,” Adesanya said in his post-fight interview, knowing the interest in a third bout between the pair inside of the octagon. “Trust me, the first time I told you, it was an error on my part spamming the right hand and that was in kickboxing.
“It’s easy to knockout, what’s the hillbilly’s name? [Strickland] because he was parrying the jabs. But it's like I said at the press conference; the next time I put you on skates, you’re going to get frozen like Elsa.”
Adesanya believes that he was comfortably on his way to a victory in his second fight with Pereira back in 2016, before getting caught with a big shot. And he has now become one of the pound-for-pound great MMA fighters, while the Brazilian has just 7 bouts in the sport.
"That's the next fight," he added at the post-fight press conference. "I saw his fight, it was a good fight but Sean Strickland should have focused on his job like I told him to.
"How soon? We'll find out - I was very hungry for this fight, I felt like this camp was great, even better than the last camp. You can ask Eugene [Bareman, his coach].
"He asked 'how are you going to make this one better than your last one? But I don't need that. I'm just ticking off title defences, even still on my worst night.
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"So the next one is something interesting for me, something I fought before in a different code and I get to show them what MMA is about, what Mixed Martial Arts are all about.
"I said before, either Sean or Alex would have been a big money fight and I look forward to this one. My boy Timbo [manager Tim Simpson], he knows what's going on so we're going to work.
"Me and the UFC have a good relationship, I like working with them and a rising tide lifts all boats. Rome wasn't built in a day, it's a step-by-step process."
