UFC 287 Aftermath: How Adesanya Set Up Pereira by Playing Possum

UFC 287 marked the return of Israel Adesanya proper. He took on and defeated longtime rival Alex Pereira and reclaimed his Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight title with one of the best knockouts you’ll see this year. Adesanya, who was down 0-3 across kickboxing and MMA against Pereira, finally made it over the hump and vanquished his foe with a beautiful example of how to play possum, and proved he has power when he needs it.

Today, we are analyzing that fight with a bit of film study. If you’ve been reading for the past few months, you’ll know that today is Aftermath day! We are going to look at the fight that was and break down why it all happened the way it did. Let’s begin.

Pereira: Anticipate Something New

Pereira’s time at the top of the middleweight mountain was short-lived. After just under two rounds as a champion, Pereira was drawn into a spot with Adesanya that saw him knocked out cold. Lying on the mat wasn’t just Pereira, but his title reign as well. Now, much is to be questioned. Will he fight Adesanya a fifth time? Will he fight at light heavyweight instead? If so, will it be against 205-pound champ Jamahal Hill or will he wait for Hill and Jiri Prochazka to handle their business first?

If knocking out Adesanya was the best thing to happen to Pereira in kickboxing, knocking him out in the UFC was even better. He now has a widely recognized brand and has played well off it. He may not get an immediate title shot at 205 pounds, but there are names that can provide that opportunity, like Magomed Ankalaev and Aleksandr Rakic.

Unfortunately, Pereira didn’t bring too much to the table that was new for his rematch with Adesanya. Fighting largely the same fight let Adesanya work with his mistakes in the first fight and amplified his adjustments made in the second. Pereira came with low kicks which, in all honesty, worked well still. In fact, in two rounds of fighting, Pereira landed more low kicks on Adesanya than in nearly five full rounds in their last fight. By the end of the first round and a bit into the second, Adesanya was eating low kicks and his leg was giving way due to the power coming his way.

In Beforemath, we talked about how it was important for Adesanya to come with some of the craftiness that he fought Pereira with in the second kickboxing fight. Unfortunately for Pereira, Adesanya did just that and it worked like a charm. After buckling Adesanya with a couple low kicks and getting involved in a couple brawling moments, Adesanya leaned against the cage and covered up. Pereira went for the kill, but it was he who got killed. After ripping the body a couple times and throwing a knee, Pereira found himself on the receiving end of two big right hands that left him on the canvas unconscious.

Despite all of this, Pereira was a true champion. He dethroned Adesanya, and he will be forever immortalized for that, but this is where Pereira’s story reaches a massive fork in the road. Will Pereira take the path that sees former champions implode and their career essentially done when the title is lost (Cody Garbrandt, Petr Yan) or will he follow that of greats like Georges St. Pierre and Dominick Cruz, keep his mental state together and get back in the ring and get a couple more wins? Be it at 185 or 205, Pereira will be hell for anyone that steps in the Octagon with him.

Adesanya: The King Returns

Speaking of winning your way back to a title, Adesanya is not one of those champions that fell by the wayside after a loss. After he lost in his bid at a second title against Jan Blachowicz, Adesanya bounced back with wins back at middleweight against Marvin Vettori, Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier. He lost to Pereira and didn’t let that be the end of him. He returned and snatched victory, and the belt, from Pereira.

First things first, the low kicks. It seemed early that Adesanya was ready to deal with the low kicks, especially after that first exchange. Pereira threw a leg kick that Adesanya checked and I thought to myself, “This could get interesting.” After that, however Adesanya didn’t deal with them at all. Since low kicks had been such a deciding factor in the fist fight with Pereira, I would have like to think that Adesanya could have worked on that a bit more. Going forward, leg kicks will be the primary point of attack for anyone fighting Adesanya.

Another great adjustment made by Adesanya was the long kicks to slow Pereira’s advance. Pereira walks forward no matter the cost. He did so against Artem Vakhitov and he did so in the Adesanya series. To deal with that, Adesanya would utilize the push kick to slow him down and make his forward movement harder.

Adesanya had other ways to deal with the advance of Pereira in the center of the cage. He used hand-fighting in the center of the cage as opposed to just against the cage. He also used the push kick several times to slow down Pereira and push him back, as seen in the figure above. In addition to literally pushing Pereira back, it was a blow landed to the midsection of Pereira to chip away at the cardio as well.

While he didn't deal with the low kicks, Adesanya did stay off the fence for a lot of the fight. When he got pushed there, he showed great urgency to get away from the cage. This is something we saw at UFC 286 when Leon Edwards used lateral movement to stay out of the grasp of Kamaru Usman when he was pushed to the fence. He and Adesanya both moved side to side as their foes advanced looking to trap them against the cage.

When he got pushed to the fence those few times, Adesanya did a good job mitigating what Pereira could do. Adesanya would get pushed back and switch to orthodox for the impending left hook. With his left hand available to jab without threat of the left hook, and his right hand to block said hook, Adesanya was free to jab his way out the side door without facing as much danger.

In UFC 287 Beforemath, we also talked about the importance of punching the body for Adesanya. To summarize, with the threat of the left, Adesanya should have only fought out of orthodox to keep the right hand up when going to the body unless he wanted to throw a cross. (1) With Pereira coming forward, Adesanya would want to go to the body. To avoid the left hook that got him in trouble in the first fight, Adesanya would switch to orthodox and start his assault with the left jab. This is a two-pronged attack. With Adesanya attacking the right side of Pereira, he’s free to get his right hand on the phone to block the impending blow. It also gets Pereira to lower his hands to make the left, and any other attacks coming his way, that much harder. It’s not as easy to throw from the hip against a fighter like Adesanya. (2) With Pereira dead to rights, he manages to throw a right to the body underneath that elbow of Pereira and land again. (3) To set off the right again, Adesanya throws the left up the middle again to keep Pereira’s hands down. (4) The second left up the middle does the job it’s supposed to and Adesanya throws the right over the top.

Lastly, out of the eagerness to get Adesanya to the fence, Pereira was handed that crushing blow. Adesanya saw how reckless Pereira was once he was there and planned to use that against him. After eating a low kick that buckled Adesanya, Pereira followed Adesanya to the fence.

The last moment of the fight wasn’t as technical as it was tactful on Adesanya’s part. He was eating too many low kicks and started to buckle hard. After one such low kick, Pereira sees Adesanya (1) back to the fence and (2) cover up. With Adesanya slippery against the fence where Pereira wanted to do his work, seeing Adesanya against the fence seemingly hurt, he was eager to get some damage in. But Adesanya was giving his best possum impression and was weathering the knees and body shots looking for Pereira to come with the kill shot. (3) Pereira loaded up the left, as expected and comes out of his shell. He (4) throws the big right over the top that dings Pereira and wobbles him. To finish off his foe, (5) Adesanya fires one more right and you could practically hear the lumberjacks yelling “Timber!” as Pereira the giant falls.

The performance by Adesanya was one for the history books. With the narrative built up around these two fighters, how Pereira was this Terminator, or Adesanya’s kryptonite, the buildup to this one was much more engaging for the casual fan. But the mechanics were all still here and this was one of the highest-level matchups we’ve seen for some time. It was something Adesanya needed: adversity. Often fighters will hit the next level of fame when there is some adversity come their way. It makes their careers compelling. Sugar Ray Leonard had Roberto Duran. Anderson Silva had Chael Sonnen. Khabib Nurmagomedov had Conor McGregor. Adesanya has Pereira.