SEAN O’Malley has tipped Israel Adesanya to finally beat Alex Pereira this weekend in their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) clash.
In November, Brazilian Pereira defeated Nigerian-born Adesanya to claim the middleweight belt in the main event of UFC 281.
Pereira, has two wins over Adesanya in kickboxing, and stopped the Nigerian-New Zealander in the fifth round in their mixed martial fight.
Now Adesanya is gunning for revenge, and unbeaten UFC No.2 bantamweight O’Malley is tipping the ‘Style Bender’ for victory in UFC 287 on Saturday night at the Miami-Dade Arena in Florida, United States of America.
“Let’s get it, Izzy (Adesanya). Finish, baby,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugarShow. “I think he’s going to come out and wrestle. I feel like he’s going to come out, he’s got a couple maybe good takedowns — come out, wrestle, put him on his back, really get him thinking.
“Maybe [Pereira] won’t be able to march forward as much. Who knows? You never f know. Some people have really good little things that they show in the gym that’s never really been done in a fight. They’re really good at it in the gym. They hit it a lot, but they’ve never done it in a fight — and then boom, they pull it out.”
Adesanya had some success wrestling with Pereira in their first MMA fight, before he was knocked out in the final round.
The Nigerian badly hurt Pereira at the end of the first round, but was unable to follow up before the round ended.
Given how much weight Pereira shed to make the 185-pound limit, O’Malley believes Adesanya can do it again, and this time finish the job.
“How much weight is [Pereira] cutting? Izzy really doesn’t have to land clean too many times if he’s cutting that much weight,” O’Malley said. “If that motherf* is cutting 20 pounds, 25 pounds fight week, your chin goes, your brain fluid [goes].”
Adesanya has an MMA record of 23 wins and two defeats, while Pereira’s is seven victories and one loss.
There has been a lot of bad blood in the build-up to the fight, with the fighters savagely teasing each other, and an explosive battle is anticipated.
