Alex Pereira says Israel Adesanya “won’t make it” five rounds at UFC 281: “If he’s within my reach I will hurt him”

Alex Pereira has the utmost confidence in his ability to dethrone Israel Adesanya.

The UFC 281 title bout between Adesanya and Pereira feels like destiny. Pereira holds two victories over Adesanya in kickboxing. Their last encounter ended in brutal fashion with Pereira knocking Adesanya out cold.

The two will mix it up a third time, this time inside the Octagon. Adesanya will put the UFC Middleweight Championship on the line against Pereira on November 12, 2022. The action will be held inside Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.

Speaking to “Super Lutas” Alex Pereira said that he feels Israel Adesanya will be forced to engage with him during their title fight (via SportsKeeda).

“I can tell you that it will be impossible for him not to engage, if he’s within my reach I will hurt him. And five rounds…he won’t make it, five rounds? And I come close, you can see in the fights that I come close, I have a very good defense. He will want to attack or counterattack, but I can hurt him with my defense too.”

Pereira went on to say that he doesn’t think many of Adesanya’s challengers have figured out the timing of his kicks.

“I saw in his fights that he kicks a lot and the guys don’t have the right time, the right time to block, you can hurt him with a block. The guy kicked, you blocked, maybe he won’t kick anymore. He’s got a big weapon and I can sort of eliminate it early on, I’ll be close to him, if he doesn’t hit me he’ll get beaten, and if he hits me he’ll get as tired as me.“

Alex Pereira is coming off a first-round knockout victory over Sean Strickland. He has a pro MMA record of 6-1 and he has gone 3-0 under the UFC banner.