Ironically, it was Pereira’s left hook again that finished Adesanya

The biggest event of the night came in the main event when Alex Pereira defeated Izrael Adesanya for the third time, knocking him out in the fifth round.

Pereira’s ability to close the gap and get Adesanya to the edge of the cage is certainly worth highlighting, but these opportunities were not capitalized on as much. Pereira seemed to be conserving a bit of energy as it was his first time in a five-round MMA fight and needed to test the waters.

However, when the fight came to an end, motivated by his trainers, Pereira came out to the fifth round with a clear task – to knock out his opponent. He had enough fuel in the tank to start firing at Adesanya with power and aggression, closing the distance this time. Ironically, again, it was the left hook that ended Adesanya and this fight.

Similar to the previous meeting, it was Adesanya who injured the Brazilian late in the first round and only the final whistle saved him from a potential loss. As I like to say, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that matters. And Pereira, as usual, did it with a bang.

Now that Pereira has finally had his five-round baptism of fire, he will be a dangerous champion if he can keep the fight standing. I think everyone is salivating and wanting this fight right now, because the door is now open for a lot of contenders, of course, if the UFC doesn’t hold an immediate rematch fight.

Zhang Weili regained her title as queen of the division by defeating Carla Esparza via choke. The outcome of the fight was no surprise, Zhang made Esparza look like a rookie. However, it was surprising that the Chinese athlete won in this way, as she is more known for her fighting in the standings. This was her second win in the UFC via pain/choke.

Dustin Poirier scored a very important scalp in his career, defeating Michael Chandler by choke in the third round. The beginning of the fight wasn’t so smooth for Poirier as he took a lot of punches, but at the end of the round he was already close to finishing Chandler himself.

After the second round, where Poirier spent more than 4 minutes in the bottom position, came back in the third to finish Chandler early.

After his loss to Charles Oliveira, Poirier bounced back with a win and is keeping his name in the division’s title talk, especially with a new champion.

This fight was everything we expected it to be, Fight of the Night.

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