Israel Adesanya shares high praise for longtime rival Alex Pereira after UFC 300: “He’s a special human being”

UFC star Israel Adesanya has given his thoughts on rival Alex Pereira and the journey they’ve been on together.

For the longest time now, Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira have been spoken about in association with one another. They fought each other twice in kickboxing and, so far, have battled twice in mixed martial arts. Across those four collisions, Pereira currently holds a 3-1 advantage. However, ‘Stylebender’ did get his hand raised in their most recent fight, knocking ‘Poatan’ out in vicious fashion.

RELATED: Alex Pereira says he’s open to training with Israel Adesanya if their rivalry is really over: “That could add a lot to our games”

In a recent interview, Adesanya was asked to give his thoughts on Pereira and their feud as a whole.

Adesanya reflects on Pereira rivalry

“He’s a special fighter,” Adesanya told Demetrious Johnson. “He’s a special human being. What he’s done in this game, in fighting, and for his life as well, I’ll always respect him. I’m grateful for those moments because, for me, it taught me so much about myself and where I can go.”

“People, they’re so f*cking stupid,” Adesanya said. “First fight in China, I thought I won. These casuals don’t. These plebs don’t. I thought I won. Even he thought I won until he got his hand raised. Second fight, I’m beating his ass and he gets me. Again in New York (at UFC 281), I’m beating him. Rocked him, took him down, held him down, beat him, and he gets me. … I just knew that I can beat this guy. It wasn’t about proving it to anyone else. It was about myself. I know I can beat this guy.

“So that last Miami one, I was in a different place. I had to tap into some darkness for that camp. People who knew me, I was different. Ain’t no way this motherf*cker is beating me four times. It’s about the story. So, now I’ve beat him once. How ironic. I beat him once, but then watch this. If I fight him again and knock him out, what are they going to say, ‘It’s 3-2. It’s now best out of seven.’ I’m 34, man. I’ve only got a certain amount of fights left. Why am I going to fight the same guy however many times? I just want to prove to myself.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

Will they ever fight again? Let us know, BJPENN Nation!