Israel Adesanya knows better than most what it’s like to stand across from Alex Pereira and trade blows. So who better to offer a prediction for the upcoming UFC White House co-main event between ‘Poatan’ and Ciryl Gane? And that’s exactly what the former middleweight champion did on his YouTube channel of late.

“Oh, good card. Yeah. F—king sick. Stacked, as it should be,” Adesanya said, reacting to the card’s reveal on Saturday. “They had to make do with what they had. They would have loved to have Jones on there, but I hope Alex wins. That’s crazy, and Gane is no joke. Gane can dance around him, [and] could knock him out as well. But I think Alex can knock him out, too.”

Pereira and Gane are set to clash on June 14 on the historic card staged on the White House lawn, headlined by Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje. This comes after the Brazilian kickboxer vacated the UFC light heavyweight belt for the sole purpose of moving up to the heavyweight division. Although he initially wanted to face someone else. 

After beating Magomed Ankalaev in October last year to retain his belt, which he lost to the same man seven months before, ‘Poatan’ called out Jon Jones for a fight in the heavyweight division. However, Dana White claimed he can’t place such enormous trust in ‘Bones,’ who retired from the sport despite being offered $30 million to face Tom Aspinall. 

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Although Jones was ready to make a comeback for the fight, and speculations suggested he would, the UFC CEO dismissed the idea during UFC 326’s post-fight press conference on Saturday. Now, Alex Pereira will face Gane for the interim light heavyweight title and the rare opportunity to become the first three-division champion in UFC.

Gane, on the other hand, is coming off a controversial fight against Tom Aspinall. The fight was declared a no-contest after the French heavyweight accidentally poked ‘The Honey Badger’ in both eyes in the first round of their fight at UFC 321. Regardless, Israel Adesanya’s support for Alex Pereira carries far more significance than it might initially appear.

Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane became possible because of Israel Adesanya 

Before the Brazilian came into the UFC and saw a rapid rise to the top, he had fought ‘The Last Stylebender’ twice. Both fights were close, but ‘Poatan’ had managed to get his hand raised in the end. So, when Adesanya finally came to the UFC and became a sensation in the promotion, he couldn’t help himself and trashed Pereira, who wasn’t even in the UFC at the time. 

This lit a fire in Pereira, and he decided to enter the promotion. Since he joined the promotion, a third fight against Adesanya was all he wanted. And he got it in November 2022. The Brazilian defeated Adesanya a third time, cementing his superiority, even though the third fight was close as well. Five months later, though, they met again. 

This time, ‘The Last Stylebender’ didn’t make the mistakes he made before and knocked out Pereira in the second round. Since then, however, things have fallen apart for the Nigerian middleweight as he dropped three back-to-back losses and hasn’t fought since February 2025. Adesanya’s win over Pereira ended up being disastrous for his career. 

But the loss did the opposite for the Brazilian. Alex Pereira moved to light heavyweight and became the champion in no time. Now, he is moving to heavyweight, and the credit goes to Adesanya, who was the sole reason Pereira came to the UFC and then moved to light heavyweight. Since their last fight, Pereira and Adesanya are on better terms.

But the bigger question is: Do you think Israel Adesanya’s prediction will come true? Can Alex Pereira dominate at heavyweight as well?