April 27, 2023admin

VIDEO: Israel Adesanya Tore His MCL 1 Week Before Rematch With Alex Pereira

Alex Pereira breaks his silence after KO defeat by Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 - Mirror Online

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya suffered a Grade 1 MCL tear the week before his victory over Alex Pereira at UFC 287 earlier in April, he said Wednesday in a video on his YouTube channel.

The video includes a clip of Adesanya sustaining the injury in a sparring session. His knee appeared to buckle underneath him as a training partner dragged him to the ground.

“F–k, it was painful,” Adesanya said.

“The Last Stylebender” knocked out Pereira in the second round to reclaim the 185-pound title. Adesanya had lost the belt to Pereira, his former kickboxing rival, last November via a stunning fifth-round TKO.

UFC 287: Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya 2 Recap Highlights - YouTube

Adesanya said he made it to the bout because he had dealt with pre-fight injuries before. He added that he suffered an ankle injury three weeks before his UFC debut in February 2018 and then hurt his knee ahead of a bout with Derek Brunson later that year.

“If you can’t change your circumstance, you change your perspective,” Adesanya said. “So I was like, ‘Right, this has happened.'”

He added: “The comeback of getting from (the injury) to the cage was already a big win for me. I was like, ‘Yo, I beat that.’ And (the injury) was really f—–g bad. After that, I was like, ‘If I can get through that and to the cage, this fight, I can get through it.’ … It added to my confidence.”

Alex Pereira reacts to Israel Adesanya trolling his son after UFC 287 knockout loss

Per his YouTube channel on Wednesday, Adesanya said he sustained a Grade 1 MCL tear the week prior to the bout in Miami. Adesanya contends that his leg buckled awkwardly under the weight of a training partner while being on the receiving end of a takedown.

The MCL tear is not expected to force Adesanya to miss time. In fact, he has already targeted South African middleweight Dricus Du Plessis as his next opponent.

Du Plessis will have to get past former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July to set up that fight. UFC president Dana White has already said the winner of that bout will face Adesanya next.

UFC 287: Israel Adesanya reveals brutal injury suffered 13 days before Alex Pereira rematch at UFC 287

In the video, Adesanya described another instance in which he injured his knee in 2018 three weeks before an important fight against Derek Brunson in New York.

“So I was like, ‘This has happened. This is my perspective. This was meant to happen. I’ll overcome this,'” Adesanya said.

The African-born, New Zealand-based middleweight earned arguably the biggest win of his career April 8, knocking out Pereira (7-2) with a pair of counter right hands in the second round. Adesanya reclaimed the UFC belt that Pereira had taken from him in November via fifth-round knockout.