After dethroning Israel Adesanya in kickboxing, Alex Pereira had done it again in the MMA with a knockout.

In the main event of UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, only Pereira, the only person to ever knockout Adesanya, was able to finish him out once more via TKO at 2 minutes, 1 second of the fifth and final round.

In just his fourth fight with the organization, Pereira won the match and the middleweight championship.

Read Also:UFC: Adesanya Defeats Whittaker Again To Retain Title

Since 2019, Adesanya has been the winner.

Up until the final exchange, Adesanya had been dominating the fight. However, Pereira unleashed a barrage of blows as Adesanya was pinned against the cage.

After a barrage of left hooks and right punches, referee Marc Goddard intervened to put an end to it.

On the scorecards of the three judges going into the fifth round, Adesanya led 39-37.

In their previous two kickboxing matches, Pereira prevailed on both occasions, most recently by knocking out Adesanya in 2017.

On its list of the top MMA fighters pound-for-pound, Adesanya came in at number two.

Adesanya was ranked first at middleweight while Pereira was ranked seventh.

At UFC 276 in July, Pereira (7-1) defeated Sean Strickland via first-round knockout to win the opportunity to defend his championship.

The Brazilian powerhouse is 4-0 in the UFC and has six KO/TKO victories in seven MMA contests overall.

The 35-year-old Pereira previously held the middleweight and light heavyweight titles in Glory Kickboxing.

Adesanya (23-2) entered this battle with a winning streak of three fights and an undefeated record at middleweight.

Prior to this, his lone career defeat came against Jan Blachowicz in a light heavyweight title match last year.

Following a victory over Robert Whittaker to capture the title in October 2019, the Nigerian-born New Zealander had five successful middleweight title defenses.

Adesanya, 33, had just defeated Jared Cannonier by unanimous decision at UFC 276 in July.