Alex Pereira – Israel Adesanya 2 headlines UFC 287

Nov 12, 2022; New York, NY, USA; Israel Adesanya (red gloves) and Alex Pereira (blue gloves) during UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports

Today we got some massive breaking news from UFC president Dana White. Dana White took to the promotion’s social media pages to announce some live breaking news which included UFC 287’s headliner. White revealed that Alex Pereira (7-1) will be defending his title against Israel Adesanya (23-2).

UFC 287 goes down on April 8th and it looks like the event is going to take place in Miami. Makes a lot of sense given the fact that Jorge Masvidal is in the co-main event. It’s the first time the promotion is bringing a big show to Miami in some time and they couldn’t be bringing a better headliner.

Their last fight might’ve been their first in the UFC, but it was their third combat sports fight. They fought twice in kickboxing with Pereira getting the better of things both times. At UFC 281, it looked like Adesanya was going to get his revenge on his rival.

UFC 287

Through four rounds, most people had Adesanya up at least three rounds to one. However, the fifth round proved to be the decisive one as Pereira poured it on and got a TKO victory. He became the first man in the UFC to defeat Adesanya at 185 pounds.

Now, these two men will fight again. Despite Pereira having gone 3-0 in combat sports against Adesanya, I would expect the former champion to be the betting favorite when the lines are released. We can’t ignore what took place for most of that fight.

This should be a tremendous fight and the UFC is coming out swinging in 2023