Israel Adesanya, Dana White Speculate on Alex Pereira’s Potential Move to 205 Pounds

While championship trilogies have been all the rage in the UFC, the rivalry between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira might follow a different path.

On the heels of Adesanya’s second-round knockout of Pereira in the UFC 287 headliner, the newly-crowned middleweight champion shot down the notion of a potential trilogy between the two rivals.

“I don’t keep score. I settle it, and now it’s settled,” Adesanya said at the UFC 287 post-fight press conference. “I gave him a fast track to the belt. I could’ve said, ‘Naw, who’s he fought? He only fought one top five.’ But no. He did well. He fought some top guys. He beat [Sean] Strickland, and I was like, ‘Well, fine, There’s no one else.’

“I was looking for that challenge. He beat me in kickboxing and I got the immediate rematch because of what I’ve done in the game. … I did the hard yard and I earned my f—-ing rematch. Now he has to do the hard yard and earn it, but I don’t think he’s going to. Go cause problems at 205. He’s a motherf—-er to deal with, I’ll tell you that.”

Adesanya and Pereira have now squared off four times combined in kickboxing and MMA. Pereira bested “The Last Stylebender” twice in kickboxing, which led to him being fast tracked to a title shot at UFC 281, where he became an unlikely UFC champion with a fifth-round stoppage of Adesanya last November. In that sense, it seems like the story might be unfinished. However, Pereira is an extremely large middleweight, and UFC president Dana White echoed Adesanya’s sentiment that the Brazlian’s next destination could be the light heavyweight division.

“Honestly, I think that Pereira probably moves to 205 after this fight,” White said. “He’s a monster. I know that he still had two pounds to cut leading up to when there was like an hour left in weigh-ins. Yeah. I’m not saying he’s moving to 205, but I’d assume he is. You guys can ask him, himself. But it wouldn’t surprise me. … I would bet anything he moves to 205 after this fight.”