Alex Pereira mocked Israel Adesanya with a Pikachu jacket before losing at UFC 287
Israel Adesanya finally had the last laugh against his nemesis Alex Pereira. The win was to embarrass Pereira as he attempted to tackle Adesanya at the UFC 287 pre-game press conference. He tried to make fun of Adesanya by wearing a jacket with Pikachu’s face on it.
The move has massively backfired. Adesanya landed a brutal KO punch to reclaim his middleweight throne. With what he described as his last chance at redemption against Pereira, ‘The Last Stylebender’ certainly redeemed itself, and boy did he do it spectacularly.
The story between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya
Things were going wrong for Adesanya up until this fight. In contrast to his immensely successful career, the Nigerian-born New Zealander struggled against Pereira. The two have a long history. They have met twice in their kickboxing careers. Pereira won against Adesanya both times. Their careers later went in two different directions. Pereira eventually clinched the Glory Kickboxing title while Adesanya cemented himself as one of the modern greats and claimed the middleweight title.
However, Pereira chased his rival and followed him to the UFC. He even earned a title shot after just eight fights, poetically against Adesanya. To Adesanya’s misery, ‘Poatan’ Adesanya snatched the title away on the first try.
History shows that there is a lot of bad blood between these two. That’s why Pereira came up with different dogs whenever he could. A normally reserved fighter, Pereira always comes alive against his archrival. In return, he donned a jacket with Pikachu’s face on it. One can connect the dots and consider this a dig as Adesanya is a huge anime fan.
Alex Pereira knew exactly what he was doing to rock the UFC 287 media day like this 😭
📸: @dannyseguratv #UFC287 | Saturday | BT sport 1 pic.twitter.com/EKr2KJyvv3
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) April 5, 2023
On the other hand, Pereira claimed it wasn’t part of mind games. He just liked the jacket as it matched his pants. The Brazilian middleweight then revealed that this was gifted by a social media content creator, Nina Drama, following his interview. In fact, after filming a comedy skit with Pereira, Nina gave her several Pikachu plushies as gifts.
Adesanya didn’t take it well. He was outraged at his archrival attire. Adesanya later posted a meme, adding, “I heard you like Pokémon. Catch Deez!”
@mmfighting Alex Pereira explains why he wore a Pikachu jacket at UFC 287 media day 😁 #alexpeira #ufc #ufc287 #mma #pikachu #pokemon #israeladesanya
♬ Original Sound – MMA Fighting
The Kiwi middleweight ensured Pereira couldn’t catch that, let alone his knockout punch. Adesanya should finally sleep in peace and despite Pereira’s success against Adesanya, he will think twice before continuing to attack his rival.
