Israel Adesanya losing the title seems to have interfered with Alex Pereira's future plans

Israel Adesanya losing his UFC middleweight title at UFC 293 appears to have interfered with Alex Pereira's future plans. Adesanya put his title on the line against Sean Strickland in the headlining matchup of tonight's UFC 293 event.

Their showdown witnessed Sean Strickland defeat 'Izzy' via unanimous decision. Strickland was thereby crowned as the new UFC middleweight champion at UFC 293. Intriguingly, the three aforementioned fighters have all fought one another. Adesanya has fought Pereira four times, twice in kickboxing and twice in MMA.

'Izzy' suffered two losses against Pereira in the sport of kickboxing. Adesanya also dropped the UFC middleweight title to 'Poatan' via fifth-round TKO in their first MMA clash in November 2022. Regardless, Adesanya avenged that defeat by beating Pereira via second-round KO to reclaim the middleweight title in April 2023.

Besides, Sean Strickland lost to Alex Pereira via first-round KO in July 2022. However, as noted, Strickland has now bested Israel Adesanya by way of unanimous decision at UFC 293.

Alex Pereira, for his part, moved up to the UFC light heavyweight division after losing to 'Izzy' in April 2023. Pereira made his light heavyweight divisional debut by beating former divisional champion Jan Blachowicz via split decision at UFC 291 in July 2023.

Following his win at UFC 291, Pereira spoke to the media about his future plans. The fighter explained that since his weight cuts to middleweight were getting tougher, he'd primarily compete at light heavyweight. That said, he suggested that there'd be "nothing more fair" than him returning to middleweight for a third MMA clash against Adesanya.

However, after Sean Strickland's upset win over Israel Adesanya at the UFC 293 event tonight, Alex Pereira has indicated that he (Pereira) is unlikely to return to middleweight.

'Poatan' took to Twitter to state:

"Seems like my plans to go down one more time to Middleweight ran out…"

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A closer look at Israel Adesanya's UFC 293 defeat and Alex Pereira's potential next move

Widely regarded as one of the greatest strikers to have ever competed in MMA, Israel Adesanya was out-struck by Sean Strickland for most of their UFC 293 fight. After being knocked down and seemingly saved by the bell in round one, Adesanya came back strong in round two. Nevertheless, 'Izzy' was subsequently outworked by 'Tarzan' for the rest of the fight and beaten on the scorecards.

Considering Israel Adesanya's long reign atop the UFC middleweight division, the consensus is that he could bag an immediate rematch against Sean Strickland, provided that he (Adesanya) and the UFC agree upon it. On the other hand, it's believed that Alex Pereira could face former UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title next.