Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira and Organic Stories

At UFC 281, Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya for the UFC Middleweight Title in the main event. He was losing the fight on the scorecards but won it in the fifth and final round by TKO. The story heading into this bout was that Pereira has beaten Adesanya twice in kickboxing, one win by decision and one win by KO. Adesanya did well in the first bout, and some argue that he should have won that bout. In their second fight, Adesanya was winning the bout, and even got Pereira a standing eight count, before he got knocked out. For some reason, Adesanya can beat most competition in MMA that he has faced, with the exception being Jan Blachowicz at a higher weight class, but he just cannot seem to defeat Alex Pereira in combat sports no matter how well he does against him. It is a fascinating story, and I strongly suspect that there will have a rematch, so the story is not over yet.

Organic stories such as this are the best that I have seen in sports. In that UFC main event, the technique that creates the violence eventually led to the end goal, but the story that was playing in the cage itself was just as fascinating and absorbing. Every time Pereira threw strikes, there was fear and anticipation that Adesanya would get hurt badly and lose the Title that he held for a long time. As time ticked away and Adesanya was ahead on the scorecards, there was a story of whether or not Adesanya could hold on against this opponent in Pereira that has been something of a boogeyman for him, and he could not. There was no happy ending for Israel Adesanya here.

Good stories have these qualities and stakes to them, and as a potential author, I need to be able to articulate that in words to an audience. Obviously, it is very difficult, taxing and time consuming. However, the end goal is what matters after all the hardship.