Maybe Alex Pereira just has Israel Adesanya’s number.
The Teixeira MMA-trained Brazilian dismissed Adesanya with punches and laid claim to the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight crown in the fifth round of their UFC 281 headliner on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Adesanya (23-2, 12-2 UFC) checked out 2:01 into Round 5, his reign atop the 185-pound weight class having concluded after 1,134 days.
It was a treacherous journey for Pereira (7-1, 4-0 UFC). Adesanya nearly finished him at the end of the first round, where he cracked the Glover Teixeira protégé with an overhand right and followed it with a crushing left hook as the horn sounded.