Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira bump into each other at the airport
UFC rivals Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira show there’s no animosity between them as they hilariously bump into each other at the airport less than two months on since the ‘Stylebender’s’ brutal knockout victory
- Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira share a win apiece over their last two bouts
- The pair bumped into each other at the airport just a month after UFC 287 clash
- Both men posted videos of the moment they spotted each other at the airport
It appears as though UFC rivals Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira can’t avoid each other, as they hilariously bumped into each other at an Australian airport.
The pair have fought inside the Octagon twice in the past six months, with Pereira taking the Middleweight title with a TKO victory back in November at UFC 281.
They then headlined UFC 287 just last month, with Adesanya reclaiming the championship with a brutal second round knockout victory.
Despite their fierce rivalry and the back and forth that has followed on social media, the pair has showed that there is no animosity between them in a friendly interaction at the airport.
Both men posted videos of each other on their social media channels after they bumped into each other at the airport.
UFC rivals Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya bumped into each other at the airport
Pereira in his video captioned: ‘Guess who I met at the airport,’ is seen speaking to the camera before showing Adesanya who covers his face.
‘The Last Stylebender’ then laughs off the meeting and the pair are seen giving each other a fist bump.
Adesanya, in his own video titled: ‘My life is a video game,’ is seen walking in a queue with dramatic music playing.
He then raises the camera to look behind him, and he zooms in on Pereira who is slightly further down the queue and flexes once he notices Adesanya is filming him.
Their rivalry goes even further back than their respective MMA careers, after Pereira beat Adesanya twice in professional kickboxing – with their first clash coming all the way back in 2016.
Adesanya mocked Pereira’s 12-year-old son in the immediate aftermath of knocking out his father at UFC 287.
Pereira’s son Alessandro had previously mocked the Nigerian-born Kiwi when he was five, imitating his kickboxing KO in the ring when ‘Poatan’ had won their 2017 bout in emphatic fashion.
In a call-back to that moment, Adesanya repeated the trick in the cage, pretending to fall to the canvas unconscious after pointing at Alessandro in the crowd.
Adesanya brutally knocked out his rival last month after three straight defeats to Pereira – one in UFC and two previously in kickboxing
Pereira got the better of Adesanya when they fought inside the Octagon back at UFC 281
Despite criticism for this, Adesanya, speaking on his YouTube channel, said: ‘I was just like, ‘Where is he? I’m going to find him.’
‘And I see his kid then his sister, I think, was holding them. She was holding them because they were crying. So I was just like, ‘bang.’
‘He’s only a kid…’ I’m like, ‘And the f*** what?” If I had a son and he came to the cage after 287 and then start to do that next to Pereira, I’d be like, ‘What the f*** are you doing? Come here. Apologise. Apologise to that man.”
Adesanya continued: ‘Guy knocked me out in his home country and then you see your kid doing that and you don’t have the discipline to scold him and then again before 281, you’re in your car and you’re like, ‘Look what my son did.’
‘If you’re not going to teach your kids manners and respect, I will. I did him a favor. I did that kid a favour.’
Pereira is making the move to the light heavyweight division to face former champ Jan Blachowitz at July’s UFC 291 event, while Adesanya is expected to defend his middleweight title in the main event of UFC 293 in September, which will serve as the promotion’s return to Sydney, Australia.
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