Preview: UFC 287 ‘Pereira vs. Adesanya 2’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will awaken from its off-week slumber with a banger of a pay-per-view card on Saturday at Miami-Dade Arena in Miami. One of the most fascinating rivalries in combat sports takes center stage at UFC 287, where Israel Adesanya looks to beat Alex Pereira for the first time in multiple meetings across two different sports, this time in an attempt to regain his middleweight title. The co-main event features Jorge Masvidal making his return to his hometown against Gilbert Burns in an important welterweight pairing, while the next two bouts on the lineup combine stakes and violence, with Adrian Yanez looking to make his mark as a bantamweight contender against Rob Font and Kevin Holland looking to duke it out with Santiago Ponzinibbio at 170 pounds. Add in the latest fight from potential prodigy Raul Rosas Jr., and this has all the characteristics of a potential night to remember.

Now to the UFC 287 “Pereira vs. Adesanya 2” preview:

UFC Middleweight Championship

#6 P4P | Alex Pereira (7-1, 4-0 UFC) vs. #5 P4P | Israel Adesanya (23-2, 12-2 UFC)

ODDS: Adesanya (-130), Pereira (+110)

It was a bit of a shock when Pereira managed to make it to a title fight against Adesanya in mixed martial arts. Even so, when Pereira knocked out Adesanya to win the UFC’s middleweight championship, it almost felt like fate rather than any sort of real surprise. Pereira and Adesanya met twice as kickboxers in matches where “The Last Stylebender” seemingly established himself as the better fighter despite not actually managing to win either fight. The first bout resulted in a controversial decision that went Pereira’s way, and the rematch saw Adesanya mostly handle things up until the point that his rival suddenly scored a come-from-behind knockout near the end of the fight. That figured to be where the story ended for the two, as Adesanya transitioned full-time to mixed martial arts after dabbling in both sports—a path Pereira seemed unlikely to follow after some middling outings in MMA of his own. From there, Adesanya ascended to championship glory in a manner that few in UFC history had before him, clearly improving from fight to fight, becoming a promotional star and unseating Robert Whittaker as undisputed middleweight champ less than two years out of his UFC debut. Adesanya’s reign as champion was a fascinating bit of business, combining talent and frustration in a way that made all of the previous comparisons to Anderson Silva fairly apt. Given an opponent that he did not respect, Adesanya was mostly willing to bring the hammer down early and often, but a lot of his title fights saw him seek out a challenge and not necessarily entirely meet the moment. His first title defense against Yoel Romero was the clearest example, but Adesanya is clearly a fighter who favors safety and caution against opponents he deems a threat. Of course, Adesanya is talented enough that none of his middleweight peers could actually take advantage of that fact to beat him. His lone loss prior to his ill-fated encounter with Pereira was in an unsuccessful move up in weight to challenge then-light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz early in 2021. As it became apparent that Adesanya would likely clean out the division sooner rather than later, the UFC decided to take a flier on Pereira, who by late 2021 had transitioned fully into mixed martial arts himself. It seemed unlikely he could navigate his way to a title shot, but the potential of a high-profile grudge match was worth attempting to find out if he could.

It remains somewhat startling that Pereira’s move to the UFC paid off as well as it did, even if the promotion smartly set him up for success. Andreas Michailidis figured to be easy work—Pereira did have a flat first round before scoring a brutal second-round knockout—and Bruno Silva was the type of straight-ahead berserker who figured to eat most of his offense. Then came a bout against top contender Sean Strickland, who had found most of his recent success marching down opponents as a volume boxer but figured to be smart enough to take advantage of Pereira’s questionable takedown defense. However, that was not the case, so two and a half minutes and one vicious knockout later, Pereira had successfully chased Adesanya to the top of the UFC’s middleweight division. For the first 20 minutes or so, the two had a fascinating if weird fight that Adesanya seemed set to win. The champion likely would have scored a knockout in the first round had Pereira not been saved by the horn, and he found a surprising amount of success with an ugly wrestling game that nevertheless made the Brazilian seem lost on the mat. With that said, Adesanya’s fights against Pereira have eternally been an exercise in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and it somehow happened again. A shade less than two minutes into the fifth and final round, Pereira landed the blow that got the ball rolling on a fight-ending combination that earned the challenger the title via standing technical knockout.

An immediate rematch—or quadrilogy fight, depending on your perspective—was clearly the next move to make. A lot of this result is reliant on Adesanya’s psyche and subsequent approach, and that was hard to parse even before this last loss to Pereira. On the feet, Adesanya has seemed more than capable of pouring on volume while staying slick defensively more often than not, particularly in their kickboxing matches. However, that went south once and got Adesanya knocked out in 2017, and frankly, everything about Adesanya’s mixed martial arts career thus far suggests he will not be willing to overcome those concerns and play with fire even if it might be his best path to victory. Instead, he is more likely to concede ground as a striker as he did for stretches of the first mixed martial arts fight, but that figures to just dull Adesanya’s own chances at a finish while also giving Pereira enough time and comfort to work. Then there is the wrestling. It certainly has to be a possible pivot for Adesanya given his success going that route in their last fight, but it is also rife with a ton of issues. Adesanya’s offensive wrestling still was not particularly pretty and the whole ordeal just seemed to tire both men, so if he goes after some takedowns early and often, it seems more likely to result in things eventually winding back in a slower striking match than any sort of dynamic finish. All in all, this all just seems to circle back to the fact that Adesanya will likely give Pereira 25 minutes to try and find a way to knock him out; and history suggests he will. The pick is Pereira via fourth-round knockout.

Jump To »
Pereira vs. Adesanya
Burns vs. Masvidal
Yanez vs. Font
Holland vs. Ponzinibbio
Rosas Jr. vs. Rodriguez
The Prelims