Desan›aǯs rei‰n

beaten Adesanya twice in their kick-boxing careers – in the fifth round to see his reign come to an end.

Pereira appeared to end the first round stronger with some body shots in a clinch on the fence, but Adesanya rocked the challenger with a right hand to the ear, followed by a devastating left hook which landed just after the buzzer sounded.

Pereira recovered well and took the second round thanks to some outstanding jabs, an impressive headkick and a takedown seconds before against Chimwemwe Chiotcha, Cristiano Ndombassy and Henriques Lando all inside the distance, before winning the WBO Africa junior middleweight title, when he stopped Daniel Larty in the seventh round.

In April 2021 he suffered his first loss when he was outpointed on fairly wide margins by Israel Madrimov at the Humo Arena in Tashkent.

Putting this setback behind him he continued on his winning ways against Chikondi Makawa (tko 6) and in his most recent fight against Rayton Okwiri (rtd 7). the end, while the third was dominated by Adesanya, who scored his first career takedown, controlled his opponent’s right wrist and enjoyed significant control time in top position.

The fourth was more evenly matched, with Pereira recovering from looking visibly tired to land some fine blows, and the Brazilian carried that momentum into the final round and just short of two minutes in landed a huge left hook that wobbled Adesanya and opened up the defences for Pereira to continue raining blows, before the fight was called to a halt by the referee.