Opinion: Why I’m Happy Alex Pereira Beat Israel Adesanya

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Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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I consider myself an Israel Adesanya fan and have given him glowing reviews for his supreme intelligence and impressive fighting style. I’m indifferent to Alex Pereira, though he is obviously a fantastic kickboxer who has quickly developed basic, solid takedown defense and carries perhaps the greatest left hook in MMA history. Still, the more I think about it, the happier I am that Pereira knocked out Adesanya in the fifth round of their UFC 281 main event on Nov. 12. Part of my reasoning is obvious. Adesanya had practically cleaned out the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division, while Pereira as the new titleholder lends itself to all manner of fresh, interesting matches, even though, true to form, the UFC will likely just have the two rematch one another. The more significant reason for my happiness falls on something else entirely.

Pereira’s win was a stunning rebuke to the way most people think about MMA ability and greatness. Let me explain. When talking about elite fighters, we discuss their good wins or victories over top contenders or champions, as well as how many total fights they’ve won, what championship hardware they’ve amassed, the length of their winning streak and how many title defenses they’ve had. However, in the context of deciding who will actually win an MMA fight, this is all irrelevant bulls---, and Adesanya-Pereira serves as a perfect example of this dynamic.

From the standpoint of legacy and accomplishments, there is simply no comparison between the two men. Adesanya had an incredible ledger of 23-1 (12-1 UFC) with five title defenses entering the bout—his lone loss having occurred after an attempt to become an unprecedented simultaneous middleweight/light heavyweight champion by challenging Jan Blachowicz, then the 205-pound king. Adesanya was also recently voted the second-greatest middleweight of all-time by a Sherdog panel that included myself, despite noting that I thought he should have lost decisions to Yoel Romero at UFC 248 and Robert Whittaker at UFC 271. Regardless, Adesanya is one of the true legends of MMA, a superlative champion among champions.

What about Pereira? He had a 6-1 record with exactly one good win against an actual top contender: a knockout of Sean Strickland. Already 35, Pereira has only been concentrating on MMA full-time for a little over a year. Moreover, against a good-enough grappler, Pereira would be easily taken down and either submitted or beaten via ground-and-pound. The UFC was aware of this reality, as it matched him with two pure strikers in Strickland and Bruno Silva, along with one mediocre wrestler in Andreas Michailidis. Silva and Michailidis still enjoyed success against Pereira by wrestling with him. Again, absolutely none of that mattered. Accolades, legacies, and placement on all-time lists didn’t mean anything when Pereira stepped into the cage with Adesanya. Yet, this concept of status effected people’s perceptions of the fight. Virtually all the active fighters polled chose Adesanya to win and to do so comfortably. Even gamblers, usually more immune to hype and perception, fell into the trap, with Adesanya opening as a modest -150 favorite before swelling to -225 by the time the fight happened. For the record, I’m not saying Adesanya shouldn’t have been a favorite against Pereira. There are some differences in fighting in the Octagon and a kickboxing ring. Adesanya had proven himself in five-round MMA fights while Pereira had not. “The Last Stylebender” was a little younger—33 to 35—and there was reason to believe that Adesanya, brilliant as he was, would somehow manage to use his limited MMA grappling to his advantage, which indeed happened. The -225 line indicates that this idea of status had infected gamblers, as well.

So what did actually matter? Mostly, it was Pereira and Adesanya’s relative striking. Despite all the talk about how much the champion had improved since the two competed in kickboxing, or how their first fight should have been judged for Adesanya, or that the challenger got lucky in the rematch, Pereira was 2-0 against Adesanya in kickboxing and had proven himself at least as good a striker, if not better. After that, there was the intelligence of both men and how well they implemented their respective gameplans. Adesanya’s slight superiority in the grappling department and greater experience moving in a cage mattered, too, but far less than the first two qualities. What didn’t matter was legacy, championship defenses or even “experience in the big moment,” which one current fighter and UFC analyst offered as a factor—as if Pereira hadn’t headlined multiple major Glory kickboxing pay-per-views, with thousands in attendance and world titles on the line.

Feel free to wax poetic about legacy, big victories, winning streaks and title defenses when discussing all-time Top 10 lists, “greatness” or various other amusing, ephemeral qualities solely meant to entertain fans. Just remember none of that means anything in a fight.