It's fair to say Alex Pereira wasn't impressed with Israel Adesanya mocking his son at UFC 287.
Pereira lost his middleweight title after suffering an emphatic second-round knockout defeat to Adesanya in their rematch this past weekend.
It was a huge moment, particularly for Adesanya, who finally earned redemption having lost three times prior to Pereira across kickboxing and MMA.
“The Last Stylebender” also made sure to rub the defeat in for Pereira's son by pointing at him and dropping to the ground to mimick how his father just went out cold — revenge for when Pereira's son did the same after Adesanya's knockout defeat to the Brazilian.
Pereira would finally comment on Adesanya's actions in his first detailed statement since the fight.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t do the same,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Fighting). “I can play with him like I’ve always played. I’ve teased him, but I don’t know, he’s another child. I don’t know what his feelings were. He was enduring this for seven years and I saw his joy after the knockout. That was his dream. That was his dream and he made it, but we’re comparing him with a child who was 5 years old at the time, right?
“I don’t have that mind. I can prove it because today he’s 12 years old and before the fight I saw that he was being influenced by other people, sometimes he even participated in some interviews and some reporters asked [my son], ‘Are you going to do this again?’ and he laughed. He’s a kid and he thinks it’s funny.
“I knocked him out [at UFC 281], I won the belt, and my kid wanted to do the same thing up there. I told him, ‘No, stop, don’t do it. Stay here, don’t do anything.’ I’m a conscious guy about everything I’m saying here, and I wouldn’t do it. If he did it and felt better that way, ok, it’s a relief he had. And if he thinks it’s better for him, ok, that won’t change anything for me.”
As for the fight, Pereira acknowledges Adesanya was the better man on the night. However, he also believes he had Adesanya seriously hurt rather than the latter playing possum.
“He knows how much I was hurting him, and that’s what I did in training,” Pereira added. “I did in training everything I expected to do in the fight. It was working out really well. Him being cornered, to say that it was strategically, that he was waiting there and I fell into his traps, I don’t believe that. I believe that he was better than me that night.
“He felt cornered and he was throwing punches and it landed and I was out.”
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