Israel Adesanya on Sunday morning avenged his UFC title loss to Alex Pereira in the biggest way possible, stopping the Brazilian champ to reclaim the belt at UFC 287.
Adesanya played possum against the fence, taking hard shots to the body against Pereira, before he snucked in a pair of right hands that sent his three-time foe to the canvas, out cold.
The win came just five months after Adesanya was stopped in the fifth round of a fight he was winning against Pereira, who twice beat him in the kickboxing ring.
After suffering a knockout loss to rival Alex Pereira this past November — his third defeat to the Brazilian across kickboxing and MMA — Adesanya had to battle a lot of demons and the perception that one opponent just had his number.
Like he was living through a Quentin Tarantino movie, Adesanya deserved his revenge and he got it with a pair of brutal right hands that demolished Pereira to end their fifth fight in the UFC 287 main event.
The official stoppage came at 4:21 in the second round as Adesanya becomes a two-time UFC middleweight champion but more importantly he picks up arguably the biggest and most important win of his career.
“They say revenge is sweet and if you know me, I’ve got a sweet tooth,” Adesanya said afterwards. “This is f****** sweet. I’m telling you, no matter what, Alex is a great champion. He lost the belt tonight but he will always be the champion.
“I told you, the hunter is now the hunted. Beating me, he made me a better fighter, a better person. In this camp, I didn’t f*** around. That last one had everything. Since 2017, that last hammer fist was from the gods.”