White: Adesanya Vs Pereira ‘Makes Sense’

UFC President Dana White believes Alex Pereira has done enough in his combat sports career to warrant a middleweight title shot against Israel Adesanya, assuming “Poatan” defeats 185-pound nut job Sean Strickland at UFC 276 in July 2 in Las Vegas.

But only if Adesanya beats Jared Cannonier in this weekend’s main event.

“Well, much like Adesanya, I mean, both these guys came from GLORY Kickboxing,” White told Yahoo Sports. “Pereira is a former double champion there, middleweight and light heavyweight. He’s got two wins over Israel Adesanya. And, you know, he’s got two wins in the UFC right now. So taking on tough, durable, nutty Strickland, which should be a damn good fight. And if he wins, it makes a lot of sense to do the Adesanya fight.”

Pereira holds two wins over Adesanya (one by knockout) from their kickboxing days.

The Adesanya camp has not been overly enthused about fighting the Brazilian a third time but “The Last Stylebender” has been warming up to the idea in recent weeks. I guess it beats the alternative — a potential Jared Cannonier vs. Sean Strickland title fight.

For the finalized UFC 276 fight card and PPV lineup click here.