Israel Adesanya gave Alex Pereira some insight ahead of his upcoming fight with Jan Blachowicz.
Pereira (7-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) makes his light heavyweight debut when he takes on Blachowicz (29-9-1 MMA, 12-6 UFC) in the UFC 291 co-main event July 29 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Blachowicz handed middleweight champion Adesanya his first-career loss when he shut down his attempt to become dual champion at UFC 259. When Adesanya recently ran into former foe Pereira at the airport, it was initially awkward, but “The Last Stylebender” ended up giving him some advice on their common opponent.
“We talked, we went through security, took our shoes off,” Adesanya said on IMPAULSIVE. “And then we’re waiting for our bags to come through the belt, and then talked about – I was like, ‘Jan next, yeah?’ He’s fighting the guy, first MMA loss for me when I went up to 205 (pounds). He kinda has the same idea.
“Through our limited conversation skills, because of his English and my Portuguese, we kind of had the same idea of what’s gonna happen. But I had to let him know, I thought the same thing when I fought Jan. I thought Jan was gonna attack me a little bit more, but he was patient. So I kind of let him know, you be patient too. In more so words. I didn’t wanna say too much, but yeah.”
Adesanya previously predicted that Blachowicz would take Pereira down and beat him there just like he did in their fight, but he also thinks “Poatan” can shut his lights out.
“He can knock out Jan badly, because I hurt Jan,” Adesanya said. “I hurt Jan really bad, and that’s why Jan decided in the fourth round, ‘I’m gonna take him down’ and went for the takedown.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 291.
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