Only one thing can incapacitate Israel Adesanya against Alex Pereira, says UFC middleweight Joseph Holmes (Exclusive)

Perhaps for the first time in his title reign, Israel Adesanya's ability to successfully defend his UFC middleweight crown is being questioned by fans and experts alike.

History and many within the MMA community favor his opponent Alex Pereira, to whom Adesanya has lost twice in kickboxing during his GLORY days. Perhaps the only reason Adesanya is edging past in expert predictions is because he is the defending champion.

However, UFC middleweight Joseph Holmes believes the only thing that can impede Adesanya's sixth title defense is his own apprehension about fighting 'Poatan'. Speaking to Andrew Whitelaw of Sportskeeda MMA, Holmes said that 'The Last Stylebender' should emerge victorious if he can defeat his own demons and stick to his guns:

"I think Izzy has what it takes to win, if he can get through his anxieties that he has for this fight. He has lost to the guy fighting twice... I think Izzy moves well enough to play his game. Izzy's also one of those guys who are playing the game, not really like fighting necessarily. [He is] playing the game of fighting. He can definitely move around and keep himself safe for five minutes - I see that for sure."

Holmes added that he is confident Pereira will not make things easy for Adesanya.

Watch Joseph Holmes' interview with Sportskeeda MMA below:

Israel Adesanya is set to put his 185lbs gold on the line against Alex Pereira in the headlining bout at UFC 281. The event will go down on November 12, 2022 at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Adesanya opened up as a small betting favorite for the title clash.

Joseph Holmes names the two UFC middleweights he believes he can't beat right now

Holmes was asked to name the top-10 middleweights he believes he can beat right now. He claimed he was confident he could take on any of them except Chidi Njokuani and Gregory Rodrigues:

"I think I can beat everybody in all honesty, except for Chidi [Njokuani] and Robocop [Gregory Rodrigues]."

Interestingly, none of the two are ranked in the middleweight division at the moment.

Holmes is currently 1-1 in the UFC, with a loss against Jamie Pickett on his promotional debut followed by a win over Alen Amedovski.

'Ugly Man' missed out on the Performance of the Night bonus despite having submitted Amedovski in the first round, which left him "super surprised, super shocked." He stated in a previous interview with Sportskeeda MMA that he felt like he was being "put through the wringer" by the UFC:

"I don’t know what else I could have done... I’m just super surprised, super shocked. But then again, I mean like you said before, like I’ve been put through the wringer from the UFC. They’re not like, they’re not giving me any handouts, like they’re definitely planning on not making this easy for me. And making me have to work for every single thing that I get from them, so, it is what it is."

Read the transcript of the interview here.