Israel Adesanya learns from past mistakes in knockout win over Alex Pereira at UFC 287

Israel Adesanya knocked out Alex Pereira in the second round of their bout at UFC 287. Photo / Getty Images

Israel Adesanya learned from his mistakes.

Leading into his bout against Alex Pereira for the UFC middleweight championship in Miami on Sunday, history was not on his side. Pereira had come away with his hand raised in all three of their previous meetings – one in the UFC and two in their kickboxing days.

But that record didn’t tell the full tale. In their past meetings, Adesanya showed he had the tools and traps to hurt Pereira, but ran out of time whenever he looked like he might stop his Brazilian counterpart. This was the case in their past two meetings, in which Adesanya had Pereira wobbled early, only to be stopped late in the fights.

This time around, he wasn’t going to give Pereira the chance to bounce back and knocked the Brazilian out in the second round.

“I was hunting him down and he wasn’t comfortable with that,” Adesanya said.

“I knew I could hunt him down. Every time I fight this guy – first fight, second fight, third fight – I always have him in the early rounds, then give him enough room to breathe so he can come back in the later rounds.

“This time I said I’m not giving him room to breathe, I’m going to suffocate him. I embraced the dark side. I embraced the darkness so I could show him the light.”

It was almost a reversal in roles. After an expectedly tense opening round, both fighters began to open up more in the second. As he did in their bout at UFC 281 last November, Pereira attacked Adesanya’s legs early and often, and that damage began to show late in the second round when two heavy calf kicks looked to trouble Adesanya.

The second of them saw Adesanya lean back against the side of the cage with a high, tight guard. On a week when his clothing brand Engage celebrated a collaboration with the team of the late Muhammad Ali, Adesanya had his own “rope-a-dope” type of moment.

As he stood there in a defensive position, Pereira sensed the finish and moved in to close it out. But Adesanya’s timing was superb, landing two strong right hands to plant Pereira on the canvas and reclaim his title.

“I played possum. I knew my leg was hurt, so I went southpaw and was like ‘I can’t keep getting kicked in the leg like this’.

“He’s f***ing good at those leg kicks. I can mimic them, and I’ve hurt him in the legs before, but he’s just so good at them. But I knew, I was like ‘this is it. Possum, possum, possum’. I set traps, man.”

It was a performance that drew plaudits from fans and fighters alike, not just the physical side of the fight – where Adesanya looked strong and which he earned a US$50,000 performance bonus for – but the mental element of coming into a bout against a man he had not beaten in three attempts, with two of those ending in devastating fashion.

But while some might crumble under that pressure, it only added to the desire to roll the dice again and prove he could get the job done.

“I wanted to show people the power of the human mind, the human spirit, and what you can do no matter what, no matter if they count you out,” he said.

“I know myself. If you know yourself, no one else can tell you who you are so I shut that out real quick.”