Firas Zahabi believes Alex Pereira “might never be the same” after brutal knockout loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287: “The way he fell”

Firas Zahabi feels like Alex Pereira may never be the same following his knockout loss to Israel Adesanya last weekend.

Last Saturday night, Israel Adesanya knocked Alex Pereira out cold. In doing so, he recaptured the UFC middleweight championship and finally earned a win over the man who had previously beaten him three times.

It was a great moment for the sport, but of course, not for Alex Pereira. The man known as ‘Poatan’ suffered a devastating KO defeat that left him stiff on the canvas. While others have come back from such setbacks, it does leave us to wonder what’s next for the Brazilian.

Firas Zahabi, who has seen a few of these moments occur over the years, had the following to say on the matter in a recent podcast.

“I think that that knockout, the way he fell, the way he was out, the way he got hit three times. That could be one of those fight-ending, career-ending fights,” Zahabi opined. “Like, he might win a few fights, lose a fight. He might never be the same, once you get knocked out really badly like that. For instance, I’ll tell you, like, when Aldo got knocked out by McGregor, he was never the same again. When Georges TKO’d BJ Penn, when he gave him that beating, that really bad beating, he was never really the same again.”

Quotes via MMA News

Pereira’s next step

After the defeat to Adesanya, Pereira made it known on social media that he intends to fight at light heavyweight in his next outing. As of this writing, it’s not clear whether or not he plans on returning to 185 pounds.

Do you agree with Firas Zahabi? Will we ever see Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira meet again? Let us know in the comments, BJPENN Nation!