Alex Pereira Dethrones Israel Adesanya To Claim UFC Middleweight Title

Alex Pereira Dethrones Israel Adesanya To Claim UFC Middleweight Title 

Alfred Kadiri

Alex Pereira TKOs Isreal Adesanya Izzy in the 5th round to claim the UFC middleweight championship in the early hours of Sunday at the Madison Square Garden, New York, BSNSports.com.ng reports .

The Brazilian was behind on all three judges' scorecards heading into the fifth session, but managed to drop Adesanya and impose his fearsome striking power to stop his old kickboxing rival.

The Nigerian had never lost at middleweight or been stopped in his MMA career, but Pereira was able to re-live their second kickboxing bout with a come-from-behind win.

The fourth was closer in style to the first, with neither man pushing the pace too much and Adesanya happy to allow Pereira to chase him. They headed into the fifth round with Pereira raising his arms to the crowd after the closest round of the fight, but at the time it seemed to be at least 3-1 in the champion's favour.

Fans began to boo in the fifth as Adesanya clinched with his rival, but they were on their feet when Pereira managed to put him down. He managed to recover and land a big combination of his own shortly after, but the damage was done and Pereira managed to land cleanly again to drop him and ultimately get the knockout win.