‘I’m cheering for him’ — Pereira hopes Adesanya continues ‘beautiful story’

As Israel Adesanya prepares to mount a comeback in the ‘final chapter’ of his career, he’s receiving some support from an unexpected source: his longtime rival Alex Pereira.

Adesanya and Pereira were rivals in kickboxing, where “Poatan” beat Izzy twice. Then Pereira crossed over into MMA and fought his way into the UFC where he took Adesanya’s middleweight title. Adesanya would regain his belt in the rematch.

Normally that much history would lead to a lot of negative feelings, but Pereira not only expects Adesanya to win his next fight against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305, he’s actively cheering for “The Last Stylebender” to emerge victorious and continue succeeding.

“I don’t think he loses this fight,” Pereira said in a new video on his YouTube channel. “And I hope he wins because he has a very beautiful story and I think he has to continue his story.”

“He’s not so young anymore, he threatened a little about wanting to stop … I think he should continue with his plans. I think he hasn’t completed his plans. If he had completed them, he would have already stopped, so if he’s there, it’s because he has some dream, something to do within the sport within MMA.”

“I’m here, I’m cheering,” he declared. “I’ve already fought with him, I’m not going to say that the guy has to lose. I’m not angry with him, I don’t have any resentment. As I said, if one day it’s possible to train with him, exchanging knowledge.”

Pereira dismissed a lot of Adesanya’s barbs towards him as ‘marketing.’

“The people who really know him who I’ve had contact with speak very highly of him. They say he’s a guy with a good heart. All that hard work and I believe that, you can see that he’s a good person, so that’s why I’m cheering for him. If he doesn’t support me, that’s no longer my problem. But I’m here, I’m cheering for him.”

That’s not the kind of sentiment you usually get out of a fierce competitor like Pereira (and certainly not the sentiment being returned from Adesanya), but the stone-faced “Poatan” continues to surprise us with the depth of his character.