![](\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-adesanya-backs-longtime-rival-against-ciryl-gane.jpg\")
<\/center>\n<\/div>\n<\/center><\/p>\n
\nIsrael Adesanya is rooting for his former foe to become a
\nthree-division champ. | Getty\/UFC<\/b><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n
Israel Pereira is scheduled to fight Ciryl Gane<\/a> Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI hope Alex wins,\u201d Adesanya said on YouTube<\/a>. \u201cGane\u2019s no joke. Gane can dance around, Pereira (13-3) defeated Adesanya (24-5) twice in Glory Kickboxing, Pereira transitioned to MMA, made his UFC debut in 2021, and Adesanya lost the title to Sean Israel Adesanya is rooting for his former foe to become a three-division champ. | Getty\/UFC Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira have shared one of the healthiest rivalries in combat sports history. Pereira is scheduled to fight Ciryl Gane (13-2) for the interim UFC heavyweight title in the co-main event at Freedom Fights 250 on June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAdesanya<\/a> and Alex
\nPereira<\/a> have shared one of the healthiest rivalries in combat
\nsports history. <\/p>\n
\n(13-2) for the interim
\nUFC<\/a> heavyweight title in the co-main event at
\nFreedom Fights 250<\/a> on June 14 at the White House. Adesanya is
\nbacking his former foe Pereira to defeat Gane. While Adesanya knows
\nthat Gane has elite movement, he believes \u201cPoatan\u201d can shut the
\nFrenchman\u2019s lights out. <\/p>\n
\nGane\u2019s slick. But I think Alex can knock him out.\u201d<\/p>\nA Storied Rivalry<\/h2>\n
\neven handing him his only kickboxing knockout loss. While Adesanya
\ntransitioned to MMA and went on to become the UFC middleweight
\nchampion, Pereira\u2019s career became somewhat stagnant. However, a
\ncomment from Adesanya, comparing their respective success, inspired
\nPereira to turn his life around.<\/p>\n
\ndefeated Adesanya a third time to win the middleweight title in
\n2023. Just when Pereira appeared to be Adesanya\u2019s kryptonite, \u201cThe
\nLast Stylebender\u201d exacted revenge by knocking out the Brazilian in
\ntheir immediate rematch. <\/p>\n
\nStrickland<\/a> and has since dropped two more. Meanwhile, Pereira
\nrose to superstardom by winning the light heavyweight title and
\ndefending it thrice in a year. \u201cPoatan\u201d lost the title to Magomed
\nAnkalaev<\/a> last year and reclaimed it by knocking him out in
\ntheir rematch. Pereira now aspires to be the first three-division
\nchampion in UFC history. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"