Israel Adesanya was slammed for taunting Alex Pereira’s son after his knockout win at UFC 287.

The 33-year-old reclaimed the middleweight crown with a vicious second-round stoppage of the Brazilian in Miami.

It came five months after Pereira won by TKO in the final round of their first fight.

Adesanya had some unfinished business to deal with after winning on Sunday (AEST).

Immediately after the referee stopped the contest, he mimed pulling three arrows out and firing them at Pereira – which is part of the South American’s famous entrance.

He then went searching for someone in the crowd – who he later confirmed was Pereira’s son.

And while footage showed the boy crying following his dad’s KO loss, Adesanya refused to show any mercy.

He turned and made a point of staring straight at Pereira’s son, before theatrically dropping to the floor.

Adesanya later revealed he had done so because the boy reacted in a similar fashion after their first fight.

Speaking in his post-fight press conference, he said: “I’m petty. I remember. The first time he knocked me out in Brazil, his son came into the ring and then just started to lie dead next to me.

“I’m like, ‘You f***ing little a******, I’ll whoop your ass if your dad don’t do it for you’.

“I looked for his kid, I pointed at him, and I saw him and I was like, ‘Hey, hey, hey’, just to remind him.”

Adesanya was criticised by those on social media for the pointed gesture at Pereira’s boy.

One UFC fan said: “NAH Izzy is cold, lmao and for Adesanya to look at Pereira’s son and get revenge for something he did when he was 10 by taunting him after knocking his dad out is wild petty.”

Another added: “Not OK … Izzy is so pathetic.”

A third responded: “Bro really beefin with a little kid.”

“A 35 year old man holding a grudge against a boy is the weakest thing I’ve ever seen,” Steve Ibbotson Kickboxing wrote on Instagram. “Awesome fighter, awesome finish and I knew it was going to happen. But the dude has zero class.”

But Adesanya insists his relationship with Pereira is amicable.

“I saw [Pereira] backstage. We’re cool. He’s a great champion, he’s a warrior,” he said.

“His story, I mean that, I’m the antagonist of his story. He’s a f***ing beast, coming from where he’s come from.

“The adversities he’s been through in his life to get to where he’s gotten now, and taking me out the way he has, it’s a f***ing beautiful story for him.

“But like I said, tonight it’s not about his story, it’s about my story, which is history.”

— with The Sun