Alex Pereira to fight for UFC middleweight championship at MSG
Alex Pereira poses on the scale during the UFC 276 ceremonial weigh-in at T-Mobile Arena on July 1 in Las Vegas. Credit: Getty Images/Carmen Mandato
Alex Pereira is just over a year into his UFC tenure, and only 14 months from the final bout in a decorated kickboxing career cut short to pursue mixed martial arts full-time.
On Saturday, he’ll fight for the UFC middleweight championship. That’s not the typical path for promotional newcomers, but one Pereira says he anticipated.
“I was expecting it would take three or four fights,” Pereira said through a translator. “I fought three very hard guys, so I think I deserve to fight for the belt.”
Some of that expectation had to do with the man currently holding the belt. Pereira (6-1) faces Israel Adesanya (23-1) in the main event at UFC 281 inside Madison Square Garden on Saturday, pitting former foes from their previous kickboxing careers in their first MMA matchup.
Prior to Adesanya’s UFC title run, the men met twice in the kickboxing ring. Pereira was victorious in both, knocking out Adesanya in their final matchup in 2017. Since, Adesanya transitioned to MMA with relative ease, capturing the UFC middleweight crown in 2019 and defending five times.
Pereira, 35, dabbled in MMA during his kickboxing career before making his UFC debut at the promotion’s last MSG appearance in 2021, knocking out Andreas Michailidis with a flying knee. Victories over Bruno Silva and Sean Strickland followed in 2022, allowing the easy narrative to play out between the newcomer and the champ.
“Fight’s already sold,” Adesanya said during media day on Wednesday. “Don’t need to say much.”
Didn’t need to, but still did. Adesanya, 33, said Wednesday he and Pereira never have vibed in their past interactions and claimed Pereira wouldn’t be in position for a championship bout if not for his work to clear the middleweight division and their history.
The Brazilian doesn’t take that as an insult, instead using it as motivation to prove he can beat Adesanya across multiple combat sports.
“I knew I was going to be faster than an average scenario due to the history that we have together,” Pereira said. “Speaking doesn’t do me justice, I have to go show people that I’ve been training MMA for a while and how dangerous I can be in MMA.”
Entering Saturday, Pereira believes the past knockout still weighs on the New Zealander’s mind.
"It's still there for sure, I don't know how he could possibly erase that from his mind. But I know it's still there."
Pereira, the betting underdog as of Wednesday, knows it’ll be a different challenge fighting Adesanya in the cage, but expects it to largely be a kickboxing matchup.
“It’s MMA, anything can happen right? Many possibilities,” Pereira said. “Maybe he’s looking to try to take me down, but if that happens, it would be more because of desperation than strategy.”
Ryan Gerbosi is an internet news manager for sports at Newsday.com. He also covers NYCFC and mixed martial arts and believes the designated hitter should be banned from baseball.
