Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira took to social media on Monday to reveal a humorous encounter between the UFC rivals at an airport, less than two months after their last fight.
Adesanya knocked out Pereira in early April to regain the UFC middleweight title from the Brazilian, who took the belt from the “Last Stylebender” in November. Pereira’s knockout of Adesanya six months ago followed his two kickboxing wins over the Nigerian-New Zealander, but Adesanya finally went some way to avenging those losses in April.
The pair appear to be on more cordial terms than in the past, too, with each man filming an encounter between them at the airport in Australia on Monday.
“Guess who I met at the airport,” wrote Pereira while sharing footage of an interaction between the pair, while Adesanya did the same and wrote: “My life is a video game.”
“Well, guys, look at this. Last day in Australia. Now we are going to Los Angeles,” Pereira said in his clip, before panning to Adesanya.
“And look at who I found at the airport. Can you guess? One chance. Wrong. Israel Adesanya.”
Adesanya is expected to return to the ring later this year with a title defence against the winner of Robert Whittaker vs Dricus Du Plessis. Adesanya knocked out Whittaker in 2019 to begin his first reign as UFC middleweight champion, before outpointing the Australian in 2022 to retain the title.
Meanwhile, Pereira is moving up to light-heavyweight in July for a bout with ex-champion Jan Blachowicz.
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