5 reasons why Alex Pereira could be a bad matchup for Israel Adesanya

#4. His defense against low kicks

A major component of Adesanya's striking arsenal involves low kicking his opponents from the outside. The reigning middleweight champion will often stand beyond his foe's reach, flicking out his jab and or executing hard low kicks.

Not only does he throw a high volume of low kicks in every bout, he also throws his low kicks with enormous power, turning his hips into every kick.

The Nigerian's intention is not merely to score points on the scorecard. It is to inflict damage, as evidenced by the state of Paulo Costa and Yoel Romero's legs after their bouts with 'The Last Stylebender'.

Adesanya has been able to do this without much deterence in MMA as most of the fighters he encounters don't have layered defenses against his low kicks.

'Poatan' does. He checks low kicks by lifting and turning his shin outward to block the thinner, lower shin of his foe's kicking leg with the thicker, upper shin of his defending leg. Along with that, he also draws out his opponent's low kick to counter it.

Low kicks are strong counters for the jab as fighters must step in with their lead leg when they jab. Alex Pereira feints the jab to draw out his foe's low kick.

The Brazilian then quickly retracts his lead leg, and as his opponent's kicking leg is still airborne, he comes forward with a brutal combination over the top when his foe is in a poor position to both defend themselves from punches or absorb them.

---

#3 He cuts off angles & attacks the body

To stifle a good ring/cage general like Adesanya, a good ring/cage cutter is needed. Many of the Nigerian's opponents do not move laterally with him. Instead, they follow him as he circles, moving linearly in a straight line, making it easier for him to walk them into his counter-punches.

Not only do they not step across with him, they do nothing to render him more stationary. Alex Pereira rarely commits these same mistakes. He is a determined ring/cage cutter who uses knees and round kicks to target the midsection.

Whenever his opponents attempt to circle away from him, he steps across with them, cutting off the angles of escape to keep them in place. Furthermore, he also throws hard round kicks to the body to act as barriers to trap his foe.

When his opponents try to circle away from the fence or ropes, he throws round kicks to the body to intercept their movement. It stops them, holding them in place. Even if the kick lands on their guard, it runs the risk of breaking his opponent's arm, as it did against Ivan Galax at the WGP Kickboxing 24 event.

'Poatan' also throws hard knees at the body when his opponents choose to move linearly or lean away from punches. As the midsection is the second body part to exit range when a foe leans away from blows targeting the head, Alex Pereira smashes his knee square into his opponent's solar plexus.