Nigeria’s Israel Adesanya has reclaimed the UFC middleweight title with an emphatic knockout win in the second round.
The win came after Adesanya lost his belt to Pereira late last year in the final round of their first clash in the UFC, although that defeat was actually the third he’d suffered at the Brazilian’s hands having faced each other twice in kickboxing bouts before shifting to MMA.
Adesanya opened the fight looking to square up Pereira but the Brazilian took advantage of the passivity with some early and relatively easy-to-land leg kicks.
As the Miami crowd chanted “let’s go Izzy”, Pereira pressed that advantage in the second round with more kicks to Adesanya’s leg, eventually making the Kiwi buckle and fall back towards the cage.
Pereira took that as his moment to go for the finish however as he pressed the attack, Adesanya countered with a perfectly placed right hook, before a second right hand and a hammer fist finished the job.
“I played possum a bit,” Adesanya said after the fight.
That last hammer fist had everything in it.”
Rapper Drake was also a winner as he won a $2.7million bet after Israel Adesanya knocked out Alex Pereira at UFC 287 to reclaim the middleweight title.
Drake lost $1.6million after backing Adesanya to win in that fight but he made amends for the rapper in his rematch with Pereira. ‘Drizzy Drake’ placed a $500,000 bet on Adesanya to win which returned $885,000 and a $400,000 bet for him to win by knockout, which returned a massive $1.8million.
