Israel Adesanya has declared that he has no interest in a fifth fight with Alex Pereira after finally stopping his long-time rival at the fourth time of asking.
The UFC middleweight champion reclaimed the gold last night in Miami with a second round stoppage of the Brazilian, who had handed him his first loss at 185lb back in November. They had previously fought twice in their kickboxing careers, with Pereira taking both of those fights as well.
However, there was a lingering feeling with pundits that Adesanya was the more skilled martial artist, which he proved in a dominant performance last night at UFC 287. And speaking with the media afterwards, he confirmed that he has no interest in doing another bout with his rival, whom he mocked with taunting gestures in the cage.
"I don't keep score I settle them," Adesanya said in an impassioned post-fight press conference. "Now it's settled. Look, I gave him a fast-track to the belt, I could have said 'Nah, who has he fought?' He fought one top five guy but nah, he did well, fought some alright guys and beat f***ing Strickland.
"I was like 'fine there's no one else', I was looking for that challenge, the guy that beat me in kickboxing, that's why I took that fight. The rematch? I got the immediate rematch because of what I've done in this game. I won the belt against Kelvin [Gastelum] and defended it against Rob [Whittaker, whom he defeated for the undisputed title after winning the interim title previously].
"Then it was [Yoel] Romero, [Paolo] Costa, [Marvin] Vettori, Rob again, [Jared Cannonier]; that's seven! My other belt would have seven f***ing gems on it. I did the hard yards and I earned my f***ing rematch, now he's got to do the hard yards if he wants to do that and I don't think he's going to."
Would you like to see a fifth fight between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Pereira, a giant middleweight who has been seen sparring with heavyweight boxing contender Zhilei Zhang, makes a monster cut to get down from deep into heavyweight in order to fight at 185lb. And Adesanya believes that he could become a real contender again should he move up to light-heavyweight where there would be a less substantial weight cut.
"He should go cause problems at 205," Adesanya continued. "Good luck to everybody else because he's a motherf***er to deal with... With Poatan [Pereira's nickname], he's always going to be a champion. A lot of people would try and like write me off and go 'oh you're not a champ any more', but they still call me champ.
"I'm still the champion, I still carry myself as a champion. Kamaru Usman, Francis Ngannou, they're still champions, they're always going to be champions no matter what. Once a champion, always a champion."
