Steering Clear of Israel Adesanya Rivalry, Alex Pereira Gives Honest Take on Ex-Champ’s Chances Against Dricus Du Plessis

Alex Pereira, aka ‘Poatan’ delivered a dominant performance in UFC 300 and gave an amazing show to the Las Vegas fans. If Australian fans are lucky, they might get to see Pereira next. The city of Perth might host UFC 305, and there might be a fight between Pereira and Jiri Prochazka. So the 6’4” heavyweight champ is already training hard, and on top of that, he is also garnering the attention of the media.

Niko Pajarillo recently interviewed ‘Poatan’ and asked him about his old rival Israel Adesanya. Even though the feud is just inside the cage, Pereira seems to have cooled down a bit.

Alex Pereira talks about Isarel Adesanya

The duo has a huge feud inside the octagon, but outside it is all love. After two kickboxing matches and one UFC title bout, Adesanya defeated Pereira at UFC 287 in 2023 to win the middleweight championship. After that, Adesanya dropped the title to Sean Strickland and went on a hiatus, while Pereira moved up to light heavyweight champ. Even though the duo always quarrels when the octagon comes into the scene, they have always held mutual respect.

So during this interview, Pereira maintained the same respect while answering what he thought of the Adesanya vs. Dricus Du Plessis fight in August. He said, “ Like I said before it would be a complicated fight right? I won against Adesanya he’s changed a little so honestly I am a little lost and I do not even have a proper answer.”

Meanwhile, Pereira has always had a good word for his opponent, and so has Adesanya. The ‘Last Stylebender’ once said that ‘Poatan’ was a special human being, and he had a lot of respect for his opponent. Now Adesanya is not the only rival he has; Potatan also has Jamahal Hill, who is not such a good friend as Adesanya.

Jamahal Hill accused Alex Pereira of having a ‘weak’ celebration after UFC 300

Pereira defeated Hill in the UFC 300, but the referee call was a little controversial. ‘Poatan’ did deliver a KO and drop Hill on the ground, but Herb Dean stopped the fight just then. However, Pereira won despite being a little confused by the referee’s interference. He was confused because just after Hill’s attack, the referee intervened, but the match went on after that.

However, Pereira dropped Hill and made the legendary hand gesture done by ‘Khaby Lame’ in his TikTok videos. This did not sit well with Hill, and he commented on the same. Pereira’s reason for that celebration was that his opponent had changed his stance at the press conferences after acting respectfully before them.

All rivalries aside, Pereira might be fighting Prochazka in August, so let’s see if they start a feud! Who do you think will win?