Alex Pereira reacts to Israel Adesanya announcing a return in 2027

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Israel Adesanya’s recent loss to Sean Strickland seemed to have affected him very deeply as Adesanya on multiple occasions spoke about taking a long break from fighting. Recently he teased a return in 2027, its quite difficult to gauge whether or not he’s being sarcastic – Alex Pereira believes Adesanya won’t stay out of the fight game for that long.

Pereira believes Adesanya needs a dose of motivation after which he will make his return seamlessly. Until then it will be interesting to see who ends up sustaining the position as the middleweight champion. The current champ Sean Strickland is set to make his first title defense against Dricus Du Plessis on 20th January 2024.

Alex Pereira on Israel Adesanya announcing a long-break

In a recent interview, Alex Pereira shared his thoughts Israel Adesanya announcing a long-break from fighting in the UFC. “I don’t think that’s true, [Pereira reacts to Adesanya announcing a return in 2027] he won’t stay [out] that long,” Pereira said as quoted by mmafighting.com.

“And that’s not good for him, to not fight for that long. He’ll give other interviews soon and get motivated again. I think he needs a bit more motivation. If he finds something that motivates him, I think he comes back quickly.

When he finds that motivation, he comes back sooner than that. Since the beginning, before they fought, I said it was going to be difficult for Strickland but he’s shown evolution to his game and it was a good matchup for him, Adesanya would have to change a few things to do better there.

If he comes back the same way it will be like if they had continued that fight, another five rounds. He needs to make some adjustments — and maybe he can change, but it’s a difficult game for him. He does that game his entire lite, and it’s very difficult to change that in one camp”.