Alex Pereira reveals he was dealing with a major injury in the build-up to UFC 281: “I couldn’t train very well”
The newly crowned middleweight champion, Alex Pereira, has revealed an injury he suffered in the running to his successful title challenge at UFC 281.
Pereira was able to achieve something that many had not even come close to in the middleweight division when he finished then 185-pound champion, Israel Adesanya. The Brazilian was down on all of the judges’ scorecards when he finally landed the devastating combination that saw him TKO ‘The Last Stylebender’.
Despite ultimately setting out and achieving what he aimed for, the former kickboxing world champion has revealed it was not all plain sailing during his training camp for UFC 281. Pereira detailed an injury he suffered to his hand whilst training when speaking in an interview with ESPN.
“I didn’t train very well for this fight. I could have been better,” Pereira said. “But I won, I became champion. A lot of people talk nonsense and don’t know what was going on. I [tore] the ligaments. I think I can come back better for this next fight.”
Alex Pereira Touches on A 4th Fight with Israel Adesanya
Injuries were unable to prevent Alex Pereira from becoming an MMA world champion and beating Israel Adesanya for the third time and the Brazilian fully expects to see his familiar foe inside an octagon once again.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether he or another will come,” Alex Pereira continued. “If I were him, I would wait a bit, but since he wants to … he was the champion. If he really wants that, he deserves this rematch. It was a good fight. He hit me, he believes he can beat me. It doesn’t matter to me, I’ll fight. If there are two people, Adesanya and someone else, and you say who I want, I’ll say ‘Adesanya.’ Because he is him.” (Transcribed by BJPenn.com)
An immediate rematch only seems fair given the length of time Adesanya reigned at the top of the division, the questions still remain will he want to jump back in there straight away with a man who has defeated him on three separate occasions already?
If Israel Adesanya doesn’t wish to face Alex Pereira again straight away, who would you like to see the new middleweight champion make his first defense against?
