Alex Pereira claims Israel Adesanya rushed return ahead of UFC 287: ‘He knows deep inside he lost 3 times’

Undisputed UFC middleweight champion, Alex Pereira has claimed that former division champion, Israel Adesanya has rushed a return to the Octagon ahead of their UFC 287 title rematch this Saturday in Miami, Florida – claiming the latter is haunted by their trio of showdowns.

Pereira, the current undisputed middleweight champion, returns to the Octagon this weekend at UFC 287 at the Miami-Dade Center – attempting to land his first defense of the 185lbs crown.

Headlining UFC 281 back in November of last year at Madison Square Garden against City Kickboxing striker, Adesanya, Pereira stopped the latter’s championship reign with a stunning, fifth round standing TKO at the Octagon fence in New York City.

Landing his third career win over the Nigerian-Kiwi, former two-division GLORY Kickboxing champion, Pereira had initially taken home a close judging win over Adesanya, before then knocking him out in a rematch in his native Brazil in another rallying performance. 

Alex Pereira weighs up Israel Adesanya’s timely return at UFC 287

And previewing this weekend’s championship main event in the ‘Sunshine State’, Pereira claimed that he believed Adesanya was making a return to the Octagon far too early following his UFC 281 championship loss.

“Fighting me this fast kind of showed me that maybe he (Israel Adesanya) just wanted to get it over with, wanted to get it done,” Alex Pereira told The Sporting News through a translator. “‘Let me just fight this guy one more time, and, whatever happens, at least I can live my life in peace.’”

“He knows deep inside that he lost three times,” Alex Pereira explained. “And I think that weighs on his shoulders way more than it is on mine.” 

Winning undisputed middleweight title inside just four Octagon outings, Adesanya had landed a pair of knockout wins over both Andreas Michailidis and Sean Strickland en route to his stunning knockout triumph over Adesanya last November.