Before Jiří Procházka got his topknot kicked out of place at UFC 303, he accused Pereira of using “magic” and “spells” to win their previous fight, which is as hilarious as it is bizarre. But in the unlikely event that it’s true, Pereira’s GOAT resume could benefit from a spell that gives Izzy the courage to give 205 a second chance.
In 2021, after a decision loss in his light heavyweight debut fight against then-world champion Jan Błachowicz, Adesanya uttered one of his favorite sayings: “Dare to be great.” It’s a saying he’s repeated ever since, sometimes followed by an affirmation: “And I am.” He said this at a time in his career when language was its own kind of magic, a narrative force so powerful that it turned the world into a manga page and fate into the shape of the anime arc in his head. At some point, however, perhaps before he was beaten up by Strickland and strangled by DDP, Adesanya stopped having the guts to be great and now prefers to assume he already is.
Given the “last goal wins” attitude he adopted after finally defeating Pereira in his fourth attempt in two sports, it’s clear, at least to me, what’s stopping the two from completing their MMA trilogy: Adesanya doesn’t want to expose any parts of Poatan’s full-strength heavyweight division. Despite being visibly more muscular than the first time he moved up, he had absolutely no interesting matches left in the middleweight division and may have had a better chance against a 205 striker than against a wrestler like Błachowicz, the former champion seems happy with that , to avoid another fight with his arch-enemy. This in turn makes their claim to greatness seem a little less bold.
Clearly, Pereira’s move to heavyweight could and should come with or without an MMA tiebreaker against Adesanya. But imagine how much more special it would be if it came after an ancient Brazilian ritual gave Izzy his former spirit and forced him to end the greatest UFC rivalry of modern times.