At UFC 234 on February 10, former Middleweight king of the world Anderson Silva (34-8; 1 NC) takes on Israel Adesanya (15-0). To help him prepare for the young undefeated fighter, Silva has turned to one of Adesanya’s former foes, and is now training with Glory champion Alex Pereira. Marc Raimondi reports that Silva has brought Pereira in to train with him in the lead-up to the Adesanya fight.
Pereira is a Brazilian fighter who currently holds the Glory Middleweight world title. But most importantly here, he’s also twice faced Adesanya under kickboxing rules, and twice defeated him. Pereira and Adesanya first met in 2016, with Pereira taking a decision win; they rematched a year later with Pereira there scoring the KO. Take a look at highlights from that KO win below, where you can see Pereira use his hands to get inside on the more flashy Adesanya, landing a hook and putting him down (and then celebrating in a somewhat unfortunate manner). That left hook is traditionally one of Pereira’s best weapons, and one he has used to KO opponents in multiple fights - here’s a particularly brutal one against Dustin Jacoby (KO at 1 minute). Highlights of the Adesanya KO are here and also available on YouTube, and you can also view the full fight below.
Accurate kickboxing records are not always easy to come by, but Adesanya’s is reported at 75-5-1, with Pereira accounting for two of those five. So if there’s a man out there who best knows how to defeat Adesanya, it’s Pereira.
Which is good for Silva, as he will need all the help he can get. Since losing the UFC Middleweight title to Chris Weidman way back in 2013, the Spider has scored only one win, defeating Derek Brunson by decision in a fight most felt should have gone Brunson’s way. He’ll be the significant underdog here.
Bloody Elbow will have full fight coverage of Anderson Silva vs. Israel Adesanya and the full UFC 234 fight card in the coming weeks.
