Alex Pereira Is Aiming For UFC Gold, Not Third Match With Israel Adesanya

Even though there is a lot of hype around Alex Pereira because of his knockout victory over Israel Adesanya in kickboxing, he clarified he’s not looking for a third matchup.

Instead, Pereira said his main goal is to be the champion of the UFC and add another belt to his collection.

“I want to make it very clear that I didn’t come to the UFC because of Adesanya. I came to be the champion,” he said. “If he’s the champion when I get there, fine. But it might not be. Who has to think about me is him, who lost twice, not me.”

Pereira is going to make his UFC debut on November 6 at UFC 268. The Brazilian fighter is a former Glory Kickboxing champion in the middleweight and light heavyweight division.

In MMA, he fought four times and celebrated victory three times. In his MMA debut, he suffered a submission loss in 2015. After that, he won two times in 2016 and once in 2020 at LFA 95. He won all his MMA fights via knockout.

Pereira is the only man who served the knockout loss to current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

They first met each other in 2016 at Glory of Heroes 1, and Brazilian defeated Adesanya via unanimous decision. In 2017, they shared the ring again, but Brazilian earned the victory via brutal KO this time.

“When we fought, he started well, he was beating me, but even though I got beaten up a lot, I didn’t get tired. I knocked him out and let it out because he likes to tease, especially when weighing. He spoke badly about Brazil, about me… When he fell, I really let go,” Pereira said.