UFC light-heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira has claimed Israel Adesanya will avoid his Brazilian teammate, Alex Pereira, by any means.
The reigning middleweight champ, Adesanya, has a storied history with Pereira in kickboxing. “Poatan” was victorious in both of their ‘Glory’ bouts, the final by stoppage. He became the first man to knock “Stylebender” unconscious.
Teixeira imagines, should Pereira defeat Sean Strickland in their upcoming bout at UFC 276 (the same card on which Adesanya is set to defend his 185-pound belt), the Nigerian-born champ will be searching for an out of their anticipated fight.
“He’s gonna have a conversation with Dana White trying to get away from that fight….” He predicted at the UFC 275 media day in Singapore.
“You think about [it] – Adesanya fought him with kickboxing gloves and he knows how hard he hits – and with mma gloves…” The 42-year-old posited at the UFC 275 media day in Singapore.
“When you lose to a guy two times, man, you know how dangerous he is, how hard he hits.”
Teixeira went on to claim that, judging by the middleweight champ’s recent foray up to the light-heavyweight division, Adesanya’s chances at dealing with Pereira by controlling him on the ground or in the clinch are slim.
“[Pereira]’s very hard to take down, very strong, and he’s a work horse.”
“Looking at Adesanya vs [Jan] Blachowicz, his best chance to beat Alex is stand up – and he already lost [twice].”
Despite his pessimism about the match-up, the 205-pound champ still has his fingers crossed the fight will materialise, for his teammate’s sake.
“It’s right there. Adesanya and him will be a great fight.”
“It all depends on all the situations – [on] Dana, and Adesanya, [and] if he really wants to take that fight.”
