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By Peter Akinbo.
Former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will face Alex Pereira at UFC 287 in a title rematch, but his head coach Eugene Bareman says he would have preferred more time before the rematch.
“If I had a choice, which I quite often don’t, then I would probably have waited longer and prepared — just to give Israel a little more time between a stoppage like that and the next fight. In an ideal world, I would have done what they do in boxing. I would’ve brought in a couple of guys for Israel to warm up on and then fight Pereira, but in the UFC we don’t have that choice,” Bareman told MMA Hour.
The coach then went on to explain that Adesanya was keen to be the next person to fight Pereira to prevent any complications, should the Brazilian lose against any other opponent.
“Quite frankly, Israel is 100 per cent adamant that he must be the next person to fight Alex Pereira beyond all doubt. So much so that when they were talking about Pereira fighting at the end of last year, Israel was like, ‘okay then, we’ll fight’. Before Israel had his surgeries and everything, Israel was prepared to take the fight on four to five weeks notice if Pereira was willing to take the fight,” he said.
The coach said while he would not have liked the idea of Adesanya fighting on such short notice, he would not have been able to stop the former middleweight champion. He noted that May or June would have been his ideal target date for the rematch between ‘The Last Stylebender’ and Brazilian Pereira.
Adesanya will look to reclaim the middleweight throne when he faces Pereira at UFC 287.
Speaking to the media prior to UFC 284, the No.1-ranked middleweight shared his motivation for the upcoming bout.
“I’ve never not been motivated to fight this guy, but for this one, I’ve put the pressure on myself. F**k the belt, f**k everything else, I have to beat this guy. That’s, I guess, my motivation – just beating him. Like I said, they can say whatever they want. It’s 1-0 or 3-0. I don’t keep score, I settle them and I just need one and I’m going to get it done.”
Adesanya has lost all three of his previous meetings with Pereira, two of which came in kickboxing. Despite this, he remains the betting favorite leading up to UFC 287 as each of the previous bouts were very closely contested.
