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By Peter Akinbo.
Israel Adesanya’s teammate, Alexander Volkanovski believes ‘The Last Stylebender’ will avenge his title loss to Alex Pereira with a knockout on April 8.
Adesanya will look to reclaim the middleweight title from Pereira when the pair face off in the Octagon in the UFC 287 headliner in Miami.
With Adesanya 3-1 up on the scorecards, Pereira was able to rally late to knock the Nigerian-born fighter out in round five of their title fight at UFC 281, but Volkanovski sees his City Kickboxing training partner getting the finish this time.
“I think it finishes early,” Volkanovski told Sky Sports New Zealand.
“I think Isreal actually finishes him. I’m thinking third round, I don’t know why I’m saying third round, but that’s been my pick, my round. I honestly think he’s gonna finish, so I’m looking forward to that. Obviously he’s got something to prove. With the right game plan and things like that, I think it’s gonna go well for him, very well for him, and hopefully a nice highlight reel for Izzy. He’s got many of those and one more for the highlight reel.”
While Adesanya has already felt the full force of Pereira’s power on two occasions, with his sole knockout losses in kickboxing and MMA coming at the hands of “Poatan,” he’ll look to avoid that devastating hat-trick at UFC 287.
And having rocked the Brazilian in the first round last November, Volkanovski’s prediction isn’t far from possible.
