Brendan Fitzgerald and Sayif Saud preview the UFC 287 main event rematch between middleweight champion Alex Pereira and …
foreign the middleweight Championship is on the line at UFC 287 in Miami as the former champ Israel arasanya looking to get his belt back against the man who dethroned him the always dangerous Alex Pereira here for the big preview as always is the general safe side safe these guys have a storied history in Combat Sports and every time they get together it’s been fireworks you’re absolutely right Brennan this is going to be the fourth time that these two guys have met twice in kickboxing this will be the second time an MMA even though Alex is up 3-0 the fights are so close that this matchup is still so compelling I can’t wait to see how it goes down Israel arasanya the former middleweight King had an historic run in the UFC unified the belt had five title defenses his exceptional footwork His Brilliant fight IQ unbelievable to watch But Here Comes The Boogeyman from the past Alex Pereira comes back the multiple time division Glory Kickboxing Champion incredible power incredible durability a four fight run all the way to the top to take Izzy out and finally come back and beat him in the fifth round in a fight that he was actually losing similar to kind of all the other fights that we’re going to take a look at today I can’t wait to see what adjustments these two teams have made and what they bring to Miami it was a big one in the Big Apple last time out at UFC 281 let’s dive into fight Focus but as you mentioned this rematch has a lot more history to it in the kickboxing ring and the fights were so similar in terms of how they played out that you uh noticed a lot when you went back and looked at their first first couple of match-ups I couldn’t believe it Brendan you know I’ve I’ve studied these before and now after seeing them fight in MMA the parallels are there in every single fight and we need to take a look at that so let’s look at the first kickboxing fight again this was all the way back in 2016 I believe when these guys met but let’s just start right out the gates here okay we know that Alex Pereira has crazy power right we know Israel Hassani is very skilled and his lateral movement his footwork his ability to switch sides and Alex knows that so right off the bat we see Alex trying to Corral Izzy and this is going to be a theme that we see over and over again so we see Alex push Israel back and Israel started to fight out Orthodox which he usually does but as he switches back to the ropes here let’s see what he actually is going to do here is he always gets this little feeler out with his hand here there’s that little feeler right and every single time he gets a feeler he checks his range you’re going to see this over and over again from Israel he’s always touching to try to get range and see where he’s at so he touches he gets his range Alex lands a kick here but we’re going to see what Israel does he’s always thinking this guy’s got incredible fight IQ now he steps back and he is softball so he changes his stance backs up Orthodox switches to Southpaw moves forward and gives Alex a different look and you’re gonna see here once we clear these ropes we’re going to look at foot position here foot position is always so important here and we’re going to see his foot position he’s always trying to line his feet on the outside of where Pereira is he doesn’t want to be in line with all that power that Alex has so you’re always going to see Israel trying to change the angles land’s a beautiful front kick and here he is backing Alex up and you know there’s this misnomer that you know he’s just scared of Alex or he’s trying to be elusive you’re going to see in these fights if you go back and I encourage you guys to watch these kickboxing fights Israel goes after him he does it over and over again we see a similar picture here Alex has got him against the ropes he’s always trying to Corral Izzy but we’re going to watch what is he does here he’s really really crafty so we see this over and over again even in the MMA fight whenever Alex gets in close Israel is going to grab a hold of him he doesn’t want to get hit with those big old shots that he knows that Alex possesses so here he’s going to get this little collar tie which is similar to MMA but watch what he does here he’s going to turn Alex here and watch what he does with his glove it’s very very interesting he keeps his glove posted right on his head okay and he does this over and over again he’s always trying to Blind Alex he keeps that hand there and right as Alex turns there’s that big right hand this is the big right hand that we saw land at the end of the first round in their MMA fight we’re gonna see this over and over again in their kickboxing fights there’s that big right hand Alex takes it he’s got a fantastic chin I want you guys to see this incredible small detail here we’re going to take a look at this lead hand here of Israel arasane and watch again how he’s always trying to occupy Alex’s mind and His Hands one little jab okay there’s a reaction two way over the top look at that look at where that hand is and then we’ll see what he follows up with and he does this over and over again right down the middle right so he’s always trying to occupy Alex’s hands and Alex has this type of Defense where he closes his hands to try to catch things in Perry and Israel knows that and over and over again he tries to exploit it so the fight’s going on in Israel in almost every single fight tends to take a little bit of a lead he lands with speed he’s usually Landing more in combination and then we start seeing these adjustments from the boogeyman Alex so here I think Israel was ahead in this fight when I watched it uh and a lot of people did it was a very close fight but here’s Alex’s adjustment you’re going to see Alex he knows that Israel kind of has a speed Advantage so he tells himself you know what I’ll take one for one so here’s his jab and we see izzyland his jet but we see Alex fading this way he’s starting to fade because what he’s going to do is he’s going to throw this thing right over the top let’s watch this right hand and he does this over and over again he’ll take one to give one because he doesn’t have the speed Advantage here so right over the top is he can’t get that hand back there’s that huge power and watch this big follow-up with this big left hook man I mean and look at Izzy’s Shin really held up with these with these big gloves it even did hold up with the small gloves Izzy’s got a heck of a chin himself huge Power Shot here and this was where the the story of the fight turned Alex would land some big Power shots but Izzy would as well and like I stated it was very very close um the fight would go to decision and ultimately they’re gonna give the fight to Alex and the reason why is because of the power shot so again a whole lot of controversy there very very close fight between the two of them all right so it needed a rematch because of how close the first fight was in kickboxing they did it in 2017 a short while later what’d you notice in this fight well we talked about those parallels and we’re going to see him again okay these these guys know each other right they came out firing but it was Izzy that comes out firing that right hand over and over again really really was aggressive he came at Alex really trying to put a stamp on it because he had lost a close decision we see him here pouring on the offense again big right hands over the top and this was kind of the theme of this fight so he’s got he’s got Alex hurt badly you know and the film shows it all and now when you see this here is Alex in a terrible spot again this is the target side and this is the weapon that right hand over and over again to that left ear of Alex Pereira and we see it over and over again but here we see Izzy Landing these big huge shots and this is where the controversy starts well here’s a standing eight count that we’re going to see happen and he hurt him so bad that the referee saved him standing eight counts here Alex checks back in he’s ready to go and true to form he is the Boogeyman for a reason there it is he comes back and puts Israel down ends this fight with a KO ending any of the controversy and even though he was down Alex Pere always seems to find a way back Israel can never get over the Finish Line with this guy doesn’t matter how big the lead is you see that he throws that right hand over the top which we saw earlier but we’re gonna look he’s loading that left hook we talk about it he carries that thing down here we said it in the last show he just keeps it down here all the time and you can see Israel is not guarding his face on this side and his hand is down because he was Southpaw throwing a left hand and he tries to get that hand back you’re gonna see him trying to bring it back but it just doesn’t get there in time and then you see Alex land that big left hook put Izzy down a little bit of taunting going on and that’s all she wrote that is what set up their rematch after Alex pareda came into the UFC won his first three fights knocked out Sean Strickland by the way using that left hook left to his managed several times in the Octagon so USC 281 Madison Square Garden in New York City they headlined the show how did it go in round one well it doesn’t get much bigger than this Brendan and everybody was building up for this everyone couldn’t wait to see this fight and and man did it ever deliver right so let’s just talk about the parallels here we know Izzy has the speed Advantage we know he likes to switch his feet we know he has beautiful masterful distance control so we see Izzy kind of understands what he needs to do to win Alex also knows what he needs to do to win knows he needs to Corral him and use that big Power so it was high drama with four ounce gloves what was going to happen I want to just start off with the very beginning of the fight right you see people’s game plans athletes game plans and the first round because it’s fresh in their head right they’re trying to do what they train for they know what their strengths are what their keys are to Victory and they’re trying to execute those keys whereas in the other athletes trying to execute his so you can kind of really see a game plan drawn out in the first two to three minutes of the first round even though it might look boring or it’s a feeling out process when you really analyze it there’s a lot there so we see Alex and the mindset here from Alex Alex knows that he needs to pressure is he he knows he needs to get in his face so what does he do he runs at him this gigantic man straight away right this huge jumping kick let’s watch Izzy and just the masterful footwork we see Izzy is already Orthodox right like we talked about watch how he just evades this so smoothly this is a big old guy jumping at you Brandon you might make a bad reaction right right slides out of the way nice and now he’s already Southpaw look at how calm he is this guy has faced this monster over and over again and done a really good job with his distance management there’s the kick from Alex and a miss and we want to talk about Izzy’s distance control and it all comes down to this every single time you see Israel touch once he touches he gets his range once he gets his range almost every single time after he touches he’s gonna land he’s so fast and he’s so diverse it’s hard for Alex to make a read so there’s my first touch I’ve got my range thank you very much look at Izzy’s eyes there’s my first kick we let it play faint and fake faint and fake Here Comes Alex and a miss so there’s a couple from Alex he’s still batting zero is he’s got one and it’s just from that range management so there’s another Miss now we’re gonna watch Izzy little pomp little pump see that switch he is so good at doing this he gets people to do exactly what he wants here’s Alex and you’re going to see Alex he’s going to circle big into the power and you can do this right you can Circle wide into the power side understanding that the danger here is here and here he doesn’t want to Circle shallow right into the power so Alex starts to Circle big but as he does this watch is he he’s just going to change a picture and make this adjustment by stepping straight up there’s that step up now everything’s different now this slide that Alex has made changes everything with Izzy goes to Orthodox and you’re just going to watch his he’s going to bang the leg he does this over and over again he’s always giving a different look to Alex make Alex adjust so he gets that kick this is all distance management faint and fake touch touch faint and fake fate and fake Miss again well you’re keeping score right so so far he has not touched Israel at all Israel just keeps on getting out of the way getting his distance touching finding his range with the leg kicks over and over again and this right here is the fight this sequence there it is again touch score this sequence is the fight for Israel lasagna distance management constantly changing the picture and keeping Alex reactive such a big important part of this fight and we’re going to see it one more time here and I really want to stress this so we see Israel again we see a stance we see that he is Southpaw here but watch what he’s going to do just a little bit of movement a little bit of motion there’s the switch so now Alex is seeing that switch and he’s got to make that reaction and it just always seems like Izzy’s just a little bit of a head little ahead so we see Izzy right here he’s just gonna faint watch Alex’s hands look at all that reaction so this is where Israel wants the fight where he’s being proactive or he’s the one pressing forward and he’s got Alex reacting so again he doesn’t even land a strike but you see the reaction happening now let’s see what Alex does Alex is going to make an adjustment he’s not a world champion for no reason he understands he’s a step behind and so this is a couple minutes into the fight but Israel has been managing the distance beautifully so this time Alice goes you know what I’m not going to back up I’m not going to react I’m going to hold my ground and when Israel goes I’m gonna go doesn’t matter if he’s that much faster me I’m going to land and you’re going to see this Israel is going to throw this jab and as he throws the jab Alex just says I’m gonna eat that leg lands a huge leg kick right here I mean and there’s a ton of power here this is very important because you remember Izzy says at the end of the fight I just didn’t have the legs to move he killed my legs and I couldn’t get off the fence right so this is a big big thing that we need to look at Alex did bang the legs and try to slow Izzy down Izzy’s lateral movement is the key to his success and Alex knows that so he bangs a leg he gets one back he goes you know what I’m coming forward there’s another one one more is he’s going to check this one I believe there it is and I think he’s going to throw one more nasty head kick right here okay the point of this is Alex understands what no more stepping back no more reactions I need to come forward and again the story of the fight in the first round tells you exactly what both these athletes are trying to do Alex needs to come forward Izzy can’t allow that to happen and Izzy has to gain respect okay you’re not going to scare a guy like Alex Pereira but easily so watch this adjustment it’s amazing when you watch this round by round the adjustments these guys are making constantly two Elite Strikers world class constantly making these little adjustments so Alex is like hey I had success you threw the jab I landed the leg kick so you throw the jab again and as he knows that so here’s my jab here’s my same reaction all right I’m gonna eat that leg up right but Israel already made an adjustment he said I’m going to put that jab on put that right hand right behind it we saw how much success he had with that right hand over and over again and this is the same thing right hand right behind it touches them right on the chin speed is on the side of Israel to Sanya Alex knows that he’s got to try to pursue him and this is really really important and we put this in in the first round because this little piece ends up being the undoing and we’ll get to it later Alex has trapped him and when he does this Israel goes to kind of a grabbing right he tries to occupy the hands grab the wrist grab the head because he doesn’t want to get hit and there’s really nowhere to go so we see this over and over again we saw it in the kickboxing but we see it in MMA so you’re going to see Israel he’s going to try to touch and grab and Alex knows that so the minute he touches right here Alex knows that he’s getting ready to fire and he’s getting his distance we spoke about that so Alex goes oh you’re ready to go right when you touch me I’m gonna kick and you can see Israel was trying to grab that wrist right and in doing that he exposed this whole part of his body and Alex touches that body with a nice body kick right here and this is something that Israel would do throughout the fight he would try to occupy hands grab him and pull him in but it didn’t always work we get to the end of the round and we need to talk about this is a thing that we see throughout the fight from Israel we talked about him grabbing but I do want to talk about this again man you got to watch out for this guy’s left hook you just gotta watch out for it and again he carries it really really low and he’s a master of that he’s a master at timing it and and Israel is fully aware you look at Israel in this position with where his hands are and and where Alex is he knows right away when he’s here kind of what Alex is looking for and this kind of shows it look at that I mean he got out of the way of that thing and he just knew he knew Alex was trying to cut him off with that left hook and he’s aware of it the whole time so Izzy knows that when he gets in these spots he’s in a bad place he knows that Alex has a lot of power so you’re going to see this grabbing over and over again and interestingly enough it seems that Israel had the power advantage in the grappling and he would win these positions over and over again Brendan he would he would lose a little bit but moreover he would win these spots and that’s why I put it in here we always talk about Pereira being so big and so physical and Israel’s like you know kind of the skinny guy Israel’s been working on his grappling and his physique for a long time to counter all these strong guys are trying to take him down and this fight shows it so Israel gets here and this is kind of like his safe place and prayer is going to bang his body here and hit him you know quite a few times throw some knees but as long as Israel can protect that chin in these spots he’ll take it so we see this over and over again good head positioned by Israel and and he just finds his position a lot so it’s important to see and Alex cannot allow this to happen in the next fight so we see Izzy breaks off here he’s in a good spot whoa end of the first round tons of drama here let’s stop this this was huge right here this was a huge moment was pretty even round I thought his zoo was up a little bit Alex started coming back this changes everything right how are these four ounce gloves going to be with these two guys and here we see Pereira get hurt so we see Izzy throw this jab and I want you to watch what he does with his lead hand he throws that jab it doesn’t land watch what he’s going to do here Brendan he’s gonna take that lead hand and he’s gonna put it all the way back look at his hand right here what he’s doing Brendan is he’s trying to Blind that side we talked about it over and over again that right hand to the left side of Alex he’s just a little bit slow with that reaction timing and you see Israel here what he’s doing is let me borrow you really fast he’s just trying to Blind him here this is an open hand he’s not trying to slap him or anything he’s just trying to keep this here because what’s going to come behind it and you’re going to see that and he does this over and over again and when I saw this on the replay I was just so impressed Israel’s fight IQ is just something else so you see he keeps that hand there and then now you see Alex and Alex is going to start to react here but it’s just enough of a delay from Israel that Alex can’t get out of the way and there’s that shot he always is aiming for that ear over and over again and he’s going to rock him here you’re gonna see Izzy thinks about an uppercut here goes with a left hook that was kind of right at the Bell a little controversy there really hurts Alex big big round end of the first round every single judge gives Izzy that round so we’re 1-0 right now Israel the judges were even across the board and every judge gave round two to everyone Alex potato what was the adjustment that Pereira made into round two so we’ve talked about the parallels let’s just pause it right here right out the gate where do we see Izzy he’s behind the black line right right out the gate this is the space that Alex wants to operate in literally from here to here he wants to keep Izzy right here he doesn’t want him in the middle he doesn’t want to move him around a lot he knows he just has to land one shot and I’m just going to let this play you know there’s not any huge punches of consequence but you just see Israel just trying to get out of there crazy will kick you see him behind that line pressed up again then we see the grab again and I want to highlight that when he gets to a point where he feels like there’s nothing he can do he does what he tries to occupy the hands right he he shows what he thinks is the biggest threat he tries to occupy the hands there’s no space to go so he’ll occupy the hands but this shows Alex getting right back to the game plan right let’s push him against the fence let me land my big strikes and now we see the adjustments again these two it’s awesome to watch because you just see adjustments constantly so we see Izzy starting off right he’s Orthodox here we see what the power is Alex is making his reads here seeing what he needs to worry about we know that right hand can hurt him he just got hurt very badly in that last round watch what Izzy does here he’s such a sniper he’s just gonna step back now he’s Southpaw he does this over again there’s my touch what comes after my touch he gets his distance in his timing and then he uses his speed there it is and we saw him go to Southpaw and if you remember this is just kind of like the very first kickboxing fight when he backs up against the fence Orthodox which is the Southpaw and starts to work his way up that lead foot these are very good shots I mean and you can see he’s Landing nothing’s even coming back so his speed is there and whenever he utilizes it he has a lot of success now this is what Alex wants to do and we’ve seen Alex cut off the cage he hadn’t landed any really big shots in this fight he landed some this was a pretty big shot and again this is just a little lead hand when he can Corral is he is he doesn’t have a place to go he touches them and his shots just seem to do a little bit more when they land so this is just a clear case of him getting that lead hand going and you see Israel he’s trying to get out of there he knows he could not get stuck in these spots there it is again some success so let’s freeze it right here before this amazing moment happens here from a world-class kickboxer we see Israel adesanya very focused right on Alex we know he’s worried about his hands we know he’s been paying attention to everything but I don’t know if he was thinking that he was going to do this Alex hits this sweet level chain and you see as he swing over the top but here we got a world-class kickboxer he learned how to wrestle he trains with Glover to share I’m sure he’s worked on this a lot it wasn’t pretty right he kind of wanted a double that didn’t work out so he gets this single right so we see him in on this single leg well his inexperience shows a little bit as he kind of gets his head on the outside and tries to crack it down Israel keeps his balance but wait he has an awesome adjustment we always say get our head up right so we can drive and see where we’re at and then look at what he does he starts to switch to a double and Alex is going to turn the corner here we call this turn in the corner and he’s going to land this great take down at the end of the second round which was just really cool you see there’s two seconds left on the clock here as it winds down that sealed the round for Alex every single judge gave Alex that round again parallels we got a 1-1 fight going into the third so now it’s time for round three and things start getting dicey once you get deep into these championship fights what’d you notice in round three so round three again it’s all about game plan and we know that these guys go to the corners that both got really good teams and really good coaches and they’re they’re telling them hey you know you can’t have your back against the fence is you gotta own the middle you got to use your speed and Alex’s guys are telling hey you need to Crown that was a good round keep him backing up so it’s awesome to see who can execute their strategy and in this round around Izzy executes pretty good so we’re gonna see Israel here he’s on the reactions in the faints in the face and wherever we see him at distance we see success there’s a nice little leg kick there’s a thing and now this is very interesting we’re going to see this over and over watch what he does with this arm he throws that jab but he kind of pulls down or weighs down Alex’s other arm this arm and when he does that he’s going to find that nice home right over the top look how he pulled that elbow down right over the top right in a Sweet Spot he’s always attacking that left side of his face and he’s going to land right here we see these adjustments from Izzy now here’s a big moment again we never thought we’d see these kickboxers wrestling like this these guys are wrestling and uh obviously they’ve been working on being complete mixed martial artists and we see that in this fight they both wanted to have that little X Factor and again I said it earlier it seems that Israel Has the strength advantage in the grappling or maybe it’s just the experience we know that he’s a purple belt Andre Andre galvao we know he has trained a lot so he gets this little body lock like we said that’s just kind of a safe spot right he gets his body lock he’s here but Alex been training his Judo a little bit feeling a little frisky here he’s gonna go for this little modified osotogari and what this is is you’re trying to kind of trip this leg right you can see he’s trying to get like a little wizard here and kind of trying to overhook here but it’s not good position and that inexperience shows here and that’s very important Point Israel takes this position and as Alex tries to throw him you’re gonna see Israel use him being off balance and just take him down and the really important Point here is this this lock right here and this body lock these double underhooks these are the positions that you want inside the Octagon they’re very hard to deal with and defend and you see here that that position was enough for him to get that takedown and now he’s in top position this next part really amazed me when I watched it I didn’t know that Israel was part dagestani but it shows that he is this guy has worked on his risk control and his wrestling and when you when we watch this play it’s incredible right I mean it really is all he focuses on here is risk control and I mean it’s really really impressive so we’re gonna start we’re gonna let this plan I’m just gonna stop it when I need to there so there’s number one here so okay all right he’s grabbing the wrist like that’s smart this is a post it makes sense that he’s going to try to pull the wrist in this is just the beginning so he tries to pull that wrist in can’t get it he’s going to get that body lock and then he’s gonna attack that wrist again you’re gonna see Israel lasagna attack this hand with both of his hands he is going to attack this wrist this whole clip over and over again every time he tries to post up he’s going to grab that one wrist with both of his hands and pull him down so he can’t base really really impressive stuff here this is wrestling and grappling more than it is Jiu Jitsu and it really impressed me there it is again he’s on that wrist he punches then he goes two again back down on the ground again once he feels he’s got security he starts Landing strikes again the way that Israel did this was beyond impressive me there he passed the wrists off you’re going to see this over and over again passing the wrist off two on one Landing with the other hand as he goes through it still got the wrist still got the wrist you see Alex trying to fight there’s two again oh man we gotta stop this Alex per this Beast that weighs 220 pounds inside the Octagon a guy that we know is so huge and so physical everyone talking about Israel that little skinny guy right a little skinny Striker look at this look at this position fam on the wrist hips in I mean look at his body posture he’s making Alex carry all that weight this is a very dominating position Alex is freaking on his knees here right getting this guy sucking in his arm and keeps on putting him flat on his face did not expect to see this from Izzy and I don’t think it got talked about enough kind of got Lost in Translation but watching it back I was so impressed with this back down again it will not allow him to get up now let’s watch right here so you see the wrist you see Izzy here and you’re going to see him try to put a hook on but again look at where his body is like this is like wrestling right keep your body weight completely on top of the other person try to put that pressure down on them it really impressed me to see Izzy understand these Concepts obviously this isn’t his Forte but he has been working on it diligently you see the strikes coming and you see Alex just kind of trying to figure out what he needs to do here I wouldn’t say that he’s resting he’s just in a bad position he doesn’t really understand now we see this little Grapevine and we’re going to watch what Izzy does with this leg he’s going to keep that leg Grapevine and Al he’s going to break Alex back down here he’s going to keep contact with that leg and that’s what you want you see that contact with the leg and you that’s what you want hooks for because hooks will control an opponent on the ground with the least amount of energy because it’s your leg right whereas in usually upper body takes a lot of energy but when you grab the wrist and you control the wrist and you don’t allow the other person to post up such an intelligent way that look khabib started this whole wrist thing you know it’s been around but he kind of highlighted it and we’ve seen it now as a control point but I didn’t expect to see Israel out of Sania use it so well but he sure did you see that Grapevine here is he’s just totally winning this position he tries a little trip here and he kind of loses position but we’re going to see the inexperience here of Alex Pereira Maybe training a lot of Jiu Jitsu with a great glow over to Shara I don’t know what made him do this but he’s going to roll here for a leg right and I don’t know how good his knee bar game is but going to your back you know when you’ve been losing the round usually not a good idea we saw Sarah gone do that loose position and change the whole outcome of the fight and we see it again Israel comes out on top and Israel is just going to dominate this round with with top position and physical control and Alex is not going to escape this Israel is going to end the round on top like this incredible risk control incredible new skills from Israel to Sanya in this third round and that’s how the round would end obviously all the judges gave that round to Izzy now we’re 2-1 going into the championship rounds as you said deep in the fight now so as we go into round four what did you notice about the strategy as it got into these deep Waters with the title on the line last 10 minutes of the fight I mean we’re going into the fourth it’s two to one we’ve seen Izzy come out and wrestle we didn’t really expect that we saw Alex wrestle in the second round so I’d say that the X Factor between the two were the takedowns in the grappling but true to form Izzy has the lead and every one of these fights in the previous three Israel has the lead right and and so that remains again Israel has the lead going into the fourth round what is Israel going to do in the fourth round he’s going to win the fourth round and I think this was one of his best rounds I feel like he was really flowing here um hitting on all cylinders and we’re going to watch again we talked about being reactive and how that was what Israel needed Alex to do and this is a perfect example this we’re going in the fourth round we see Alex is just watching you always say that you’re watching your opponent you don’t want to be watching and taking pictures there’s the level change look at the hands right just from this level change we get a reaction just like we did in the first round so there’s our reaction Izzy gets the reaction that he needs and it’s all about Tempo change for him then he comes back up takes a look and out of nowhere there’s that Sprint jab he just lands that over and over again he gets the timing down gets Pereira to react and then he adds on or he uses a Tempo change to score you see it over and over again and then let’s take a look at this Brendan let’s take a look at how slick this guy is seems like just a simple one too right let’s watch this dude he’s gonna grab his wrist and and pull his hand down kind of like he did before kind of like The Feelers or the blinders of all that he understands the defensive deficiency here on this side and this just I mean this just shows it straight up he’s always trying to get rid of that arm watch what he does with that hand he’s going to grab it I mean there’s a full grab right there that’s a grab right while he is what in the middle of throwing the punch so just super slick stuff here by Izzy he pulls that arm down and punches right over the top Israel with the speed advantage and the trickiness being very slick there’s that one two again and we want us to want to talk about this again watch this second jab here Brendan it’s not even a jab it’s that block it’s me just trying to get something in front of him and he’s just going to keep it there watch that hand watch how he just kind of keeps that hand there as he’s getting this ready he just wants to keep something and Alex is Vision still there still there still there and then right over the top again to that sweet spot so he’s always trying to block that side and land let me add on a nice little lead Kick let me switch back to Southpaw it’s just too good not to replay Brandon it’s just too good not to replay watch this guy after he’s landed the right hand and that little kick he steps back to southpaw gauges himself sees where his foot is understands the distance and is confident enough to land this beautiful look at this body kick right here in space he gets reaction from Alex with the hands I mean it doesn’t get better than that right and the confidence for Izzy to go bop bop step back step back he constantly is reading oh there’s an opening oh I got some oh I can get more always making adjustments and I mean doesn’t get better than that you know right under the guard he’s either got Alex going up high like this and he comes underneath or he’s coming in the middle so just beautiful stuff here by Israel Sonya we talked about when he gets in close Brendan how he needs to defend and here we go again we’re in the fourth round we got a nice lead we need to be smart I’m against the fence I don’t need this big guy hit me here comes a big left hook here from Alex prayer and Izzy hits this little level change gets to a spot I don’t really think he’s trying to get a takedown as much as kind of change his positions But there again we see this is what he’s always coming to he’s getting that bad luck get in that position it’s a good safe spot for him he feels good here and this is how he kind of mitigates damage when he gets in close and again remember this is the fourth round so we see that body lock and we’ll see him turn Alex here use this over and over again just to kind of get in a safe position so again Izzy against the fence here and the clock is ticking let’s watch this big shot here from Alex but I want you to see before he even throws it what the understanding of where these shots are probably going to come Israel knows how dangerous Alex is and he knows what he loves to do what does he love to do Brendan he loves that left hook that’s his baby and he lands it over and over again it’s way down here in Mississippi but he’s still got his hand up he’s still already getting ready for this it just shows the awareness of what can take him out which makes what’s happened that much more special again we saw that grabbing that we talked about how Izzy’s always kind of trying to grab him when he’s in close he throws that left hook doesn’t really hit him misses that shot misses his shot no it’s watches he’s gonna give him a little head nod right here nah you didn’t get me right nah I’m good I’m good so as the fourth round ends and Alex is walking back to his stool we have Israel adesane all judges gave him the round he is now up three rounds to one in a familiar place he has a nice comfortable lead going into the fifth of course the margin for error is taken away for all 25 minutes when you’re fighting a guy with this kind of power what’d you notice in round five we all know how it ended let’s show us how we got there well I mean as I stated early his corner is like look you’ve got to knock him out you have to finish here are you going to lose the fight it’s that simple and we’ve seen Alex here before we’ve seen him before in the first kickboxing fight he threw the power on he didn’t get the knockout but he added volume big shots he stole that one in the second fight he was losing badly I thought really badly he gets The Knockout in the final round and now going to this fight he’s down three rounds to one what can Alex do well we’ll see well we know that our viewers already know what happens so let’s watch this and you know you gotta think is Israel just going to try to really mitigate here is he going to try to kind of just run away that’s really not what he does he kind of stays with his strategy if you watch the fight he’s gonna land here he throws that lead kick but we’re going to see that let that switch to stance and then again that’s the same thing we saw in the last round right he’s gonna switch his stance as he backs up he’s gonna give himself a nice little lane on that outside leg and you’re gonna see when he throws this kick just kind of where he is right and all he needs is what he just needs that little bit of an angle and he’s constantly winning these battles if he can create those angles right with his stance switches and his footwork he usually wins those battles so a nice body kick and but you see Alex he does not care what Israel is doing in the fifth round he’s just gonna walk him back and back him up and look at where he is so even though he’s winning and landing and doing all those other things we see Israel backed up again trying to control him trying to grab him he’s got that hand and we’ll just let it play from here on out so here goes Alex there’s Izzy trying to grab him trying to turn him we’ve seen this before kickboxing one the very first fight he gets him here and he’s going to turn him this was his strategy you see as he turn here and he’s going to throw an elbow right off the brake Alex kind of gets out of the way but so this is now there’s only a couple minutes left in this fight Israel even in this round nothing crazy has happened we showed he’s throwing his offense Alex is throwing his offense trying to trap him against the fence I’m just going to let this thing play out right now let’s take a look at what happens and then we’ll talk about it here goes Alex landed a big right hand there’s a big uppercut we see Israel he’s trying to grab him there’s that left hook man Israel’s hurt bad here and I know some people talked about this stoppage but man after I watched this over again in slow motion how many big punches he lands here just incredible that this guy comes back again and steals this fight and let’s take a look at what happened here Brendan we talked about is he trying to grab that was a strategy man he made it almost to the end he tries to reach out and grab here again and by trying to reach out and grab with this hand he leaves himself open and we see Alex is just going to punch right inside that he goes right inside that so that grabbing right we always say Keep Your Hands by your face so at least your hands can absorb the shot and not your chin and and he gets caught here bad gets hit with his big right hand and I think that right hand was really what starts everything we see Alex understand that he’s Landing he shuts him up here’s this little up punch that lands as well Big Shot and we see Israel taking a deep breath trying to get out of there oh man there’s that left hook and again we’re going to try to find where he throws it from there it is he is so good at this he carries this thing way down here so you don’t see it you only see it at the end and the next one he’s gonna land is even more impressive he doesn’t need any space to land this punch any space at all so we see is he trying to get out of the way you see his right hand is up but he goes right around the guard the hands here he goes right around the garden you see the impact too I mean it’s just right on the chin just the worst spot not up high on the head right on the chin and Izzy eats these shots huge shot this uppercut isn’t really going to land we see this left hand way down here right I didn’t see this the first time but I sure saw it on the replay so here comes that uppercut watch this left hook from no look look how close these guys are look how close they are to each other so you know you’re Israel right here you got both your hands here this hands down this hands right here you’re thinking like I’m all right and there’s nothing worse than getting hit when you think you’re okay those are the ones that hurt the most because you can’t brace watch this little left hook right on the chin so even in close quarters where you think Israel’s trying to survive through this whole barrage he is getting nailed right on the chin over and over again you can only take so many of those shots I’m really really impressed that he didn’t fall down here’s that shrug out and Israel’s hurt here if you look at them another big punch to the temple big shots and when you look at Israel here he is really kind of out of it and then another huge left hook big big shots here and Israel’s trying to get away and and goddard’s yelling at him he still gives him an opportunity here and again when I watch it in slow motion and I saw these big shots I thought it was a good stoppage you do see Izzy moving I do understand what he was saying but just so much from Alex to close the show and there it is your new middleweight champion Alex does it again the boogeyman comes back to ruin is he’s almost got his one back but he couldn’t get it new Champion but same old story at least in this rivalry so far let’s go keys to victory for Alex pareida who’s now the champion what’s the keys for him to do it again well I mean the film tells the story right he’s got to go forward when he tries to stay back with Izzy and and play games he’s always reacting and I just think that he’s slower than is he you know from watching them fight three times it appears that he’s slower um you know and he does have the power Advantage but Izzy can hurt him as well so he can’t sit back he’s got to go forward he’s got to get Izzy on his back foot and he has to cut off the Octagon to do that right right Israel’s a little bit quicker than him he switches stances very very well he needs to cut off the Octagon get him against the cage just like he did in the kickboxing got him against the ropes he hurts Izzy with big shots when he can Corral him he can land in combination kind of takes away the speed differential when he can trap him and lastly he’s got to control the clinch we saw him have some success he did get a takedown but Izzy won the majority of the grappling there with the head position the body lock the takedown the third round the wrist ride I mean he really really won and and Alex cannot allow that to happen we don’t know what the game plan is going to be from Israel but we he cannot allow him to control the clinch the way that he did especially in those safe spaces he’s gonna have to figure out like he did in the end of the fight how to get out of that and damage over the top on the other side for the now former Champion he’s been close many times he’s had a lead what does Israel arasani need to do to get over the hump he sure has had a lead Brennan he’s been here before he’s been here almost every single fight we saw throughout the film he does does have a speed Advantage he’s got to utilize that he’s got to be first that one two that he’s thrown has hurt Alex over and over again he knows that he can land at will he knows when he goes forward and he’s first he’s successful but he’s got to maintain that throughout the whole fight and to do that he’s gonna have to stay off the fence I heard everybody talking about you know why did he back up why did he stay against the fence but when you watch the tape he mitigates pretty good right he goes to that body lock position he turns him he’s pretty pretty defensive in that until the very end and that’s the point it only takes one he cannot get there he cannot bet on that strategy that I can control him and grab the hands he’s just got to keep Alex in the middle the whole time he cannot allow Alex to push him back and lastly he’s got to win the wrestling in the clinch positions we talked about his ability to turn him against the fence he can do that we also saw that takedown and that wrist control I’m sure that Alex’s Camp is going to work on that I don’t think they were ready for Izzy to come out dagestani style and grab his wrist and keep breaking him down but that’s what Israel did but I don’t know if Alex can close that Gap and experience and skill that Israel has it seems in the grappling department and I look for them to also to Grapple again in this fight I don’t know how much they’re going to but I think Israel just has more experience and that’s why it seems like he’s the stronger guy he might not even be physically stronger but his experience allows him to hit those techniques a lot quicker and he really dominated that third round of the wrestling there’s more on the line than just a UFC championship in this fight because of the history between these two what does it say to you about Israel adesanya that he wants this challenge again despite their history you know it’s amazing I was thinking before I came in today to do this show the pressure that is on Izzy for this fight the amazing amount of pressure and you know he didn’t run from it he went right back to it and you know it’s got to be really hard for him mentally to know that he’s been ahead of this guy so many times but he just can’t seem to get over the hump he can’t get to the finish line and so now he goes in his whole Legacy almost on the line here with this fight right is this going to be the story that Alex Ferrera was the guy that he could just never be take away the greatness of Izzy the incredible run that he’s had or is he going to come and finally right this wrong and finish this chapter and get a finish which is what I think he’s really looking for well it is a rematch but really any fan knows it’s about a lot more than just a rematch in the Octagon for Israel adesanya and for Alex Pereira and you’d think that Israel arasanya knows what he needs to do to win it’s a whole other thing to actually get it done for safe side I’m Brennan Fitzgerald thanks for watching UFC breakdown