Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has confirmed that the fall miniature he showed after knocking out Alex Pereira was meant for the son of his downed rival.
“I’m petty bro,” Adesanya said in an interview after the fight. “I remember when Pereira knocked me out for the first time in Brazil, his son came into the ring and pretended to be dead next to me. I then thought, ‘Oh, you little asshole – I’ll kick your ass if your father doesn’t.’ So yeah, I saw him in the audience, pointed him out and just reminded him of that.”
Recall that the middleweight title fight, which led the UFC 287 tournament in Miami, ended at the end of the second round with the victory of the Nigerian by knockout. Thus, Adesanya closed the previous defeat, when in November last year he lost to the Brazilian by technical knockout in the fifth round and lost the championship belt.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/31262-israel-adesanya-otomstil-synu-aleksa-perejry.html?rand=19907
