Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira at UFC 281, middleweight title fight, is currently making headlines due to a video leak from the following match. Reportedly, a fan leaked the footage, which shows Pereira vowing to “kill” Adesanya during the fight. The video later went viral on social media.
The previous middleweight title holder was the Nigerian-New Zealander professional MMA fighter. But as of late, in his sixth attempt to defend the title, he failed against his rival, Alex Pereira, who just won the match via technical knockout. However, the former UFC middleweight champion claimed that it was a premature decision by the referee. The former boxer thinks he was fully capable of fighting at that moment.
I’m ngl, I knew pereira was going to win by some sort of knockout after you can see him mouthing “te voy matar” before the 5th round started. That’s cold pic.twitter.com/JYp6TIva20
— zambo 🇭🇳 (@tocitolindo) November 13, 2022
Despite this, a strange scene occurred during the match. It was about the Brazilian MMA fighter who was seen to have vowed to kill the 33-year-old in front of all the officials and the audience. Later, a fan took the video and shared it on Twitter. Before the round begins, the 35-year-old can be seen in his corner telling Adesanya “pronto para matar,” which translates to “ready to kill.” It happened in the fifth round of the match, and later that round, the former Nigerian kickboxer got knocked out.
The no. 1 UFC middleweight fighter was later told by UFC officials that he will definitely get a rematch against Alex Pereira, but the timing of the fight is still unknown. On the other hand, the Brazilian kickboxing fighter doesn’t appear to care who he fights, later stating, “It doesn’t matter to me; the UFC can choose whoever they want me to fight, and if they think a rematch is the fight they are going to do, then I will be ready.”
However, the New York State Athletic Commission later issued medical suspensions for 19 fighters from the event, including both of the middleweight UFC fighters. Whereas The Last Stylebender was given a mandatory rest period of 60 days, the current middleweight champion was only given 30 days.
