Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira: When 'The Last Stylebender' suffered his only KO loss

Israel Adesanya has been knocked out only once in his life and the person who knocked him out is Alex Pereira.

Before debuting in UFC, the middleweight champion regularly took part in boxing and kickboxing tournaments.

Although undefeated in his MMA career so far, 'The Last Stylebender' has had a few defeats in kickboxing. However, he has been knocked off his feet only once and the fighter to do that was none other than the current GLORY middleweight and light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira.

Israel Adesanya has fought Alex Pereira twice in kickboxing bouts and lost in both outings. His first defeat came via unanimous decision, but in the second one, Israel Adesanya was dropped by a vicious short left hook in the third round.

This is Adesanya's only KO defeat across the sports of boxing, kickboxing, and MMA till date. The bout happened at Glory of Heroes 7 in January, 2017.

Watch the video of the knockout below.

Alex Pereira stops Israel Adesanya #GLORY46 pic.twitter.com/HMv70jOSfo

— Bestrafer7 (@Bestrafer7) October 4, 2017

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Alex Pereira: I don't think Israel Adesanya will be interested in a rematch

After the loss to Alex Pereira in 2017, Israel Adesanya transitioned to MMA for good. He signed with UFC towards the end of 2017 and had his debut against Rob Wilkinson in February 2018, which he won with a neat second-round TKO.

Alex Pereira, on the other hand, had moved away from MMA after having competed in three Jungle Fight events, losing one and winning two. However, he made a comeback to MMA last year with a clinical knockout of Thomas Powell at Legacy Fighting Alliance event LFA 95.

Thomas Powell was left unconscious on the mat for about 5 minutes after the knockout, as per reports. In fact, he could not recollect fighting after he regained consciousness, even though he did walk out of the cage on his own, as shown in the broadcast.

When Powell got up, he was seen saying to the medical staff, “I was fighting?”

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) November 21, 2020

With Alex Pereira's return to MMA, fans have been wondering if there will be a third face-off between him and Israel Adesanya, this time inside the cage.

In an interview with BJPenn.com in October last year, Alex Pereira discussed a possible third fight with Israel Adesanya, and whether it could happen inside the octagon.

"I don’t think Adesanya would be interested in that fight. I beat him twice and I’m the only man to KO him. We never know what the future holds. It could happen someday," Alex Pereira said.