Israel Adesanya wants his former rival Alex Pereira to keep winning until he’s ready to retire.
Adesanya and Pereira had a well documented rivalry in combat sports. After a pair of kickboxing matches, “Poatan” stopped Adesanya to capture the UFC Middleweight Championship. The win put Pereira at 3-0 against Adesanya, who responded by knocking Pereira out to regain the 185-pound gold.
Going into 2026, neither man plans on fighting the other again. In fact, both Adesanya and Pereira have had friendly exchanges in recent times. During a speaking session at Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA, Adesanya wished Pereira luck for the rest of his MMA career (h/t MMAFighting).
“For me, it was never really about him, it was always about me,” Adesanya said. “I knew, technically, I’m the only one to hurt this man multiple times. I knew I could always touch him.
“I’m so proud of what he’s doing now — two-time light heavyweight champ now. He’s back on top now, about to fight [Jon] Jones at the White House. I hope he never loses [again].”
Adesanya then reflected on finally being able to defeat Pereira and doing so in spectacular fashion to close out their feud.
“I hope he retires undefeated [moving forward] because I always knew it’s not about other people, it’s about me. Because after he beat me at Madison Square Garden, people were like, ‘Oh, he’ll never want to fight him again.‘ But I was like, ‘Yo, Dana, run that shit back. I need that.’”
What’s next for Pereira isn’t known at this time, although rumors have surfaced. As for Adesanya, he recently hinted at taking a fresh approach to his fights, as he’s no longer concerned with chasing titles at this point in his Hall of Fame worthy career.
BJPenn.com will keep you posted on what’s next for Adesanya and Pereira.
