20 March 2023 , 14:09
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Alex Pereira has detailed his "dangerous" sparring session with Zhilei Zhang as he prepares for his rematch with Israel Adesanya.
'Poatan' was crowned UFC middleweight champion last year after dismissing long-term rival Adesanya with a last-gasp KO. However it will not be the last he has seen of his counterpart, who will attempt to win his belt back at UFC 287 on April 9 in Miami.
Despite Adesanya's strong title run prior to being dethroned, Pereira will go into the contest as favourite and has been preparing hard to retain his belt in a maiden defence. Part of his training has been a heavyweight sparring session with boxing star Zhang, who is set to face Joe Joyce in London next month.
Pereira posted a series of images from his sparring session with the Chinese challenger, captioned: "What a sparring session! After four rounds with Zhilei Zhang, I'm very confident for my next fight ! It was hard and dangerous sparring - exactly what I needed. Now I know even more ready for April 8!"
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In the images, Zhang and Pereira can be seen swinging for each other with both having shown their power punching traits during their own endeavours in combat sports. Zhang is several divisions above Pereira, but has clearly shown why the Brazilian is capable of mixing it at higher weights if he is to ever vacate and make a switch.
Pereira has made regular confident predictions for his latest test against Adesanya, who he has also beaten on two previous occasions when the pair met in the professional kickboxing ranks. And MMA pioneer John McCarthy believes Adesanya could be plagued mentally by his previous KO's when looking to avenge the loss.
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"A guy beats you. Now, the first one in kickboxing, you look and you go, 'I don't think I lost that'. Okay, but then he goes and he starches you, so you got that loss and there's nothing you can say. Then, you have an MMA fight and you're doing well, and he puts you out again. Tell me it's not in the back of your mind," McCarthy said on the Weighing In podcast.
"We talk all the time about if a champion deserves a rematch, but I think Adesanya deserves it. He absolutely has a chance to win that fight, but I also think Alex has the chance to put him away again. There's so much involved in this fight and it could go either way, that's why people are going to want to watch it."