UFC 281: Israel Adesanya ranks Alex Pereira’s threat level

Israel Adesanya has given his thoughts on Alex Pereira’s threat level heading into their UFC 281 main event.

This November at Madison Square Garden, Israel Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight championship against long-time rival Alex Pereira. The match-up will serve as the main attraction on the UFC 281 card, continuing the promotion’s tradition of heading to the world’s most famous arena in late fall.

These two men have a lot of history together with ‘Poatan’ previously defeating Adesanya twice in kickboxing, with one of those triumphs coming via knockout.

Alas, we all know that mixed martial arts is a completely different ball game, which is probably one of the reasons why ‘Stylebender’ is feeling so confident about his chances.

During a recent interview, Izzy spoke about the danger of taking on someone like Pereira.

“This next guy [Pereira], I know for a fact he’s not gonna be defensive. He’s gonna attack me, which is what I look forward to. I look forward to someone who actually wants to fight, actually wants to be in there, and not just survive.”

“Threat meter, to be honest, as an MMA fighter, I’ll give him like a six, if I’m being honest. Threat meter six. There’s one thing he’s really good at, it’s that left hook. It’s what he catches a lot of people with. He’s not gonna catch me with a flying knee.”

Adesanya is referencing Pereira’s UFC debut last November when he knocked Andreas Michailidis out with a flying knee, setting him on his way to a 3-0 run that would eventually earn him a title shot.

The fact that Adesanya noted the attacking intent of Alex Pereira tells us that he understands what his assignment is in this particular match-up.

Across his last six bouts, the champion has only registered one