Over his absolutely brilliant tenure as a mixed martial artist, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has provided a model for elite pro kickboxers to transition to mixed martial arts. Once one of the best middleweight kickboxers in the world, Adesanya has dominated the UFC by leaning fully into his superior striking skills and ability to read opponents, while using expert footwork to avoid the grappling defense issues that have plagued so many top strikers.
Adesanya now exists today as one of the very best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and one of the best middleweight mixed martial artists of all time. Over his entire combat sports career, he’s lost only very sparingly: once as a mixed martial artist, up 20 pounds against light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz, once as a pro boxer, five times (in about 80 fights) as a pro kickboxer.
And in all that time, only one man has knocked Izzy out. And as it happens, that fellow is signing with the UFC. Well, isn’t that interesting?
The UFC caught lightning in a bottle with Adesanya, and now they’re hoping to do it again with Alex Pereira. The 34-year-old Brazilian has long been regarded as one of the elite pound-for-pound kickboxers in the world, and has gotten one over on the current UFC champ twice: once by decision in 2016, and once by knocking Izzy flat with a left hook in September 2017.
The UFC hasn’t been a stranger to signing big-name kickboxers in the past, including some with even less MMA experience than Pereira. K-1 star Gokhan Saki made two appearances with the UFC in 2017-18, despite having lost his only previous career MMA fight – a fight that took place 13 years earlier. Adesanya and Giga Chikadze are two more big names to have made the transition and succeeded in a huge level.
But Pereira captures the eye, and the imagination, as much as any other kickboxer the UFC has tried out. That’s mostly because of the destructive power in his legendary left hook – the man has the death touch. If he hits you with it, you go down, and you do not get up. The Alex Pereira left hook is one of the most terrifying strikes in combat sports today – as poor Thomas Powell found out in November, in Pereira’s first MMA fight in over four years.
Although Pereira has major combat sports bona fides, his MMA record is looking real lean. Leaner than almost anyone the UFC has signed in years. Pereira is 3-1 in his pro career – Thomas Powell, his victim last time out, has just a 5-6 pro record. He had little business being in there with someone like Pereira. Still, it was an entertaining display of his skills in an MMA setting. Pereira showed off his Muay Thai ability with some crunching knees in the clinch, showed off dangerous kicks, and fended off Powell’s attempts to take over the fight by crowding him in tight and outmuscling him – something I’d expect most of his opponents to try.
Even so, the high-level kickboxing doesn’t always translate – recall Saki getting slept by Khalil Rountree in 2018. And while his first scheduled UFC opponent, Andreas Michailidis, is a lower-level fighter as far as the UFC goes, he’s coming off a win and has a 13-4 pro record. The jump in competition will be very steep. Pereira’s wins over Adesanya will likely have the UFC motivated to push him heavy should he build some momentum – that’s a very easy selling point for an MMA rematch. But Adesanya had spent years building up his record and resume on the regional MMA circuit before signing: he had an 11-0 record, with wins over multiple current and former UFCers. Pereira has had one MMA bout in almost five years, against a club-level fighter on an LFA show, and is being tossed in there with the best.
And while Pereira has those two wins over Adesanya – with the added bonus of one of them being an incredible highlight – the gap between them as pure strikers isn’t actually that big, if it exists at all. The first fight was actually a rather contentious decision that many saw going Adesanya’s way. Meanwhile, Adesanya was winning the second fight until he got caught with the left, a moment that taught him a very important lesson about controlling distance and not getting drawn into firefights with guys who can murder you with one punch.
Since then, we’ve seen Adesanya’s striking approach grow ever more refined. Meanwhile, we’re seeing Pereira coming off one of his least impressive performances in years, a decision loss to Artem Vakhitov a couple weeks back where he honestly looked like his mind was somewhere else. It likely was on this – the chance to step into a whole new sport and prove what he can do.
I have no idea how Alex Pereira will fare in the UFC, but history doesn’t always smile super kindly on stars from other combat sports jumping into the deep end with little crossover experience. Even less so when they do it at 34 years old – Adesanya was still in his 20s when he debuted in the Octagon. But there’s one thing I do know: it’s going to be fascinating.
The Big Fight 