UFC 281: Pereira stuns Adesanya with fifth-round KO to become middleweight champion

Alex Pereira maintained his combat sports dominance over Israel Adesanya by knocking out the UFC's middleweight champion in the fifth round of their headline bout at UFC 281 in New York on Saturday night.

Pereira, twice victorious over Adesanya in their kickboxing days and the only man to have stopped the Nigerian-New Zealander in any fight, stopped the champion for a second time with a stunning combination of strikes in the final round.

The Brazilian was down on the judges' scorecards and appeared to be running out of steam before unleashing the barrage which dethroned Adesanya, who had held the title for three-and-a-half years. Pereira becomes middleweight champion in only his eighth professional MMA bout.

Adesanya’s loss snapped his 12-fight win streak at middleweight, only one shy of Anderson Silva’s division record.

"I feel so good, I've been training all my life, I worked so hard for this," Pereira said in his post-fight interview.

Fighting out of a southpaw stance for much of the first round, Adesanya landed a huge right hand and followed it up with a left hook to the jaw that almost ended the fight, but Pereira was saved as the horn sounded to end the frame.

Pereira recovered and bounced back in the second round, but the fight swung in Adesanya's favour in the third as he landed a takedown early and exerted heavy pressure on his opponent, forcing him to carry his weight and landing shots from the back.

After winning the fourth round comfortably, Adesanya looked to be cruising towards a decision victory until Pereira, who has a previous KO win over him in kickboxing, rocked him with a right hand and followed it up with a flurry of devastating punches to claim the crown.

Weili Zhang dominated Carla Esparza to win