"Book it" - Nina-Marie Daniele plays matchmaker for Alex Pereira's LHW title defense at UFC 300

Nina Marie-Daniele has seemingly played matchmaker for Alex Pereira's potential next fight. Speculations have recently surfaced that Pereira, who's the former UFC middleweight champion and reigning UFC light heavyweight champion, could return to UFC 300 on April 13, 2024.

The UFC is yet to announce which challenger Pereira will defend his light heavyweight title against. Besides, the MMA promotion hasn't given any official confirmation regarding Pereira's rumored return to UFC 300.

In the aftermath of his UFC light heavyweight title-winning performance against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 in November 2023, the Brazilian MMA stalwart called out longtime kickboxing and MMA rival Israel Adesanya. Pereira became the UFC middleweight champion by beating Adesanya in November 2022, but he lost the title in his rematch against 'Izzy' in April 2023.

Following that, Adesanya lost the middleweight title to Sean Strickland in September 2023. After his upset defeat against Strickland, Adesanya revealed that he'll be taking an extended hiatus from MMA competition. However, 'Izzy' has now hinted that he could return soon.

Furthermore, an Instagram post by ESPN MMA featured Pereira's recent comments regarding a possible third MMA encounter against Adesanya. 'Poatan' alluded that he'd respectfully offered 'Izzy' a shot at his light heavyweight belt immediately after winning it. He opined that Adesanya has consistently issued disrespectful responses.

Implying that he'd be fine with fighting someone else if the Adesanya trilogy doesn't materialize, Pereira stated:

"I wanted to give him the chance, and I saw he was not giving me any respect for [my callout] ... If he comes up, nice; if he doesn't, it doesn't matter."

Taking to the comments section of the Instagram post, social media influencer and UFC interviewer Nina-Marie Daniele asserted 'Poatan' should defend his light heavyweight title against Adesanya at UFC 300. Daniele wrote:

"Poatan vs Izzy for LHW title at UFC 300! Book it!"

Check out the screenshot of Nina-Marie Daniele's comment below:

Screenshot of Daniele's comment

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When Nina-Marie Daniele's gift elicited an unexpected reaction from Alex Pereira

Nina-Marie Daniele has carved a unique niche for herself in the MMA world since 2022. Lauded for her sense of humor and friendly interview style, she's one of the most well-known UFC interviewers today. One of her early successes as a UFC interviewer came around the time of Alex Pereira's first MMA clash against Israel Adesanya, when her peculiar interaction with 'Poatan' went viral.

The duo have had several hilarious interactions through 2022 and 2023. Speaking of which, back in November 2022, Daniele posted an Instagram video that featured 'Poatan' doing a vocal impression of the anime character Pikachu.

The American model gifted Alex Pereira a Pikachu stuffed toy, which was paired with a Pikachu denim jacket donned by him. The Brazilian KO artist, who's known for his stoic demeanor and lack of facial expressiveness to external stimuli, was all smiles and unexpectedly tried the signature Pikachu vocalization as well.

Watch Nina-Marie Daniele and Alex Pereira's Pikachu video below: