At UFC 295, Alex Pereira went out of his way to call out Israel Adesanya, who was paying attention.
Pereira, a former middleweight champion, became the ninth fighter to claim a second division title by knocking out Jiri Prochazka for the vacant light heavyweight belt at Madison Square Garden in New York. Pereira made UFC history as the quickest double champion to accomplish the feat, needing just seven fights since he debuted with the promotion in November 2021.
Afterward, Joe Rogan didn’t bring up Adesanya’s name during his octagon interview with Pereira, but he didn’t have to. Pereira welcomed Adesanya to follow him to light heavyweight and ended his callout with a simple message.
“Adesanya, come to daddy,” he said.
That got a response from Adesanya inspired by the Disney film “Frozen” on social media.
Adesanya’s response seems to indicate he’s not interested in another go-round with Pereira after knocking him out in their most recent encounter this past April at UFC 283. Prior to that, Pereira owned Adesanya both in kickboxing, where he beat “The Last Stylebender” twice, and in MMA after taking the UFC middleweight title from Adesanya by knockout in November 2023.
Adesanya’s revenge came five months later, and he seems content with that as he takes time away from the sport following his title loss to Sean Strickland this past September at UFC 293.
Pereira is expected to defend the 205-pound championship against Jamahal Hill, who vacated the belt earlier this year because of injury.