28 February 2023 , 14:36
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Israel Adesanya has revealed he required medical attention on a pre-existing injury following his defeat to Alex Pereira.
'The Last Stylebender' came up short in his UFC middleweight title defence against Brazilian star Pereira last November. It was his third successive defeat to 'Poatan' in combat sports, given he was beaten twice by his rival during their kickboxing careers, i ncluding one by brutal KO.
Adesanya suffered a similar fate in their UFC fight and was stopped after a late onslaught from Pereira despite winning the fight prior to the referee's intervention. And the 33-year-old has since admitted it wasn't just the referee who was required to intervene, with medical staff also assessing him following the showdown.
"I had some medical intervention [following the fight]," he said during an interview with Combat TV. "Not just the fight itself, but I had a pre-existing thing that I had to sort out before the fight. Everyone goes into a fight with something, there's always something [wrong]. [It's] the way we train."
Adesanya had already suggested he had suffered damage to his peroneal nerve after a leg kick from Pereira during the contest. He said after the fight: "The fight was going my way. He hit my peroneal nerve so that's why my footwork was compromised. 'Cause I was wondering, even when I tripped and did the backwards roll, I had to do a roly-poly 'cause I was like, 'S**t!' I just tripped over and it's not like me, so kudos to him for investing in those calf kicks. 'Cause yeah, it cost me."
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Despite suffering the injury during and before the fight, it appears Adesanya has now recovered in time and is set to duel with Pereira on April 9 at UFC 287. It will be another difficult outing for the Nigerian who needs a win to prevent falling out of the leading contender spot, with the likes of Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker looking for a title shot.
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However the short turnaround come as a surprise to many including Adesanya's coach Eugene Bareman who would have waited a little longer if the decision was down to him. “If I had a choice, which I quite often don’t, then I would probably have waited longer just to give Israel a little bit more time between a stoppage like that and the next fight,” Bareman said on the MMA Hour.
“Even in an ideal world I would have done what they do in boxing. I would have brought in a couple of guys for Israel to warm up on and then fight [Pereira]. In the UFC, we don’t have that choice and, quite frankly, Israel is 100 percent adamant that he must be the next person to fight Alex Pereira. Beyond all doubt. I would have been happy with May, June, but give or take, I’m okay with the timeline that we have. Izzy has been training for a while now, so we’re in our usual frame of mind and our usual state.