UFC champion dethroned by stunning late TKO

Alex Pereira ended Israel Adesanya’s reign as middleweight king at UFC 281

Alex Pereira repeated history by stopping Israel Adesanya in New York on Saturday night, this time taking the middleweight championship from the New Zealander at UFC 281.

The two fighters had met before in their kickboxing days, with Brazilian Pereira boasting a pair of wins over ‘The Last Stylebender.’

The last of those was a showstopping knockout in Sao Paulo in 2017, but Adesanya boasted having no psychological trauma from the incident while going on to the UFC and becoming its middleweight champion three years and a month before he met Pereira for the third time.

With Pereira putting together just seven fights in MMA after migrating from the Glory kickboxing promotion where he was its first-ever simultaneous two-weight champion, a 19-1 Adesanya’s experience told in the fight where he was making his sixth title defense.

Pereira started well, but was rocked at the end of Round 1 by a slick combination from his nemesis. In Round 2 he fared better, but looked gassed and found out at the top level in the third and fourth rounds, with many criticizing the UFC for fast-tracking him to a title shot off the back of an old rivalry.

Pereira's corner two minutes before he became a UFC champion