Former two time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has weighed heavily on UFC 303’s main event this weekend, predicting a chilling outcome.
The Last Stylebender as Adesanya is known is the current Light Heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira’s biggest rival throughout their combat sports careers.
With Pereira currently up 3-1 in their series across kickboxing and mixed martial arts (MMA), Adesanya got the most recent laugh when he scored a second round knockout (watch highlights) over Pereira to snatch back the 185-pound crown in April 2023.
Therefore, sending Pereira up to 205 pounds where he’s made history.
Although Pereira heads into this upcoming Jiri Prochazka rematch with a second round technical knockout of the Czech (watch highlights) on his resume, Adesanya, expects a different outcome than we saw in November 2023.
“I’m going to go Jiri because we’re the chosen few,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Fighting). “But also, I think he might have learned from his mistake because people don’t understand, and it also makes things interesting — if [Prochazka beats Pereira] then it’s a trifecta, a trilogy, yeah.
“And I won’t be the only guy to knock this guy out,” he concluded.
“I’m going to go Jiri, and I’m going to go by third-round, or fourth-round finish.”
Pereira and Prochazka have both earned finish victories since their first fight.
At UFC 300, they won their respective bouts against Jamahal Hill and Aleksandar Rakic, setting up this short-notice sequel.
Ultimately, Adesanya expects the rematch element of the match up to be a big factor, but the short notice is the biggest.
“The approach from both fighters will be different because they both know what could happen — Alex knows he can get taken down and controlled, and Jiri knows he can get knocked out,” Adesanya said.
“But also, Alex knows he can get touched and hurt by Jiri. … [It will be a] more calculated [fight], slower because also they are taking this on short notice. They’re both relatively fit, but again, five-round fit, that’s the one. I know it’s short notice, but five-round fit, that’s crazy.
“Someone’s going to die — that’s going to be the mindset, either he finishes me, or I finish him,” he continued. “That’s the mindset you have to have if you’re taking a short notice fight, five rounds. Because holding on for five rounds, if you’re not fit, it’s a bad time. Bad as hell. So you have to go in there and just be like, either he dies, or I die.”
Tag: UFC303
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UFC welterweight contender Micheal ‘Venom’ Page is looking ahead of his next fight with Ian Machado for a possible clash with number one ranked Kamaru Usman.
Page spoke with Chamatkar Sandhu in an interview about the path he sees to UFC gold which started at UFC 299 with a win over Kevin Holland.
MVP sees the Ian Garry fight on June 29th at UFC 303 as the perfect springboard to the top of the division.
“He’s an Irish guy that’s doing he’s doing really well … he’s [ranked] 7th, which is my lucky number,” Page said. “So that’s that’s another reason why I was like, ‘Yep. I want that.’ And it propels me into the top 5. So it’s exactly where I wanna be. I don’t wanna waste any time.”
From there Page believes he’s one more fight away from earning a title shot on home turf in England.
“If I wanna bring it back to the UK, there will most likely be one more fight,” he said.
“And then they usually do a show in March or something. So if I can get one more fight by the end of the year, that’d be perfect. Perfect way to sign off the year.”
“Finish Ian. Maybe ask for Usman. You know? Get a big fight next. He’s No. 1 ranked. Like I said, there’s no point wasting time. Let’s jump up. Let’s go. Usman, if he’s happy to go, we go. Get that win, and then there’s no debate after that. It’s like no, I deserve the belt.”
The former Welterweight champion Usman ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ last stepped into the cage in 2023 when he replaced an injured Paulo Costa, to face Khamzat Chimaev in a middleweight bout at UFC 294.
Usman lost the fight via majority decision in what was his middleweight MMA debut.
Usman’s possible fight with Page could still take some time to come to fruition, but the Briton is so sure of his plans on beating his next opponent, Garry?
“I’ve got about ten different ways to hurt this guy, and they’re all horrible,” he said with a smile. “So he can pick.”
For insight into his lethal capabilities inside the octagon, Page referenced how he took care of business in his first UFC fight against the top rated Holland.
“You know, Kevin Holland as a first fight, for anybody, it’s a crazy first fight,” Page said. “People saw what I did there. I know my ability. I’m comfortable with anybody up there. So I’m just looking to just get up there as quickly as possible.”
“You can see [my] popularity has gone up. You see the respect level. Especially after that first fight and how I handled Kevin, who is an amazing athlete, high level. He’s come straight back, broke someone’s arm. He’s a tough competitor.”
‘Get Ready For 25 Minutes Of Pain’
“The way I handled him, they saw the frustration in his eyes and how he struggled to handle me,” he continued. “I think there’s loads of respect. But it’s interesting, I’ve been telling you guys this for a long time, you guys just don’t listen. Before, I was ‘crushing cans,’ and now everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you can actually fight.’”
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