Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya’s rivalry might not be the biggest ever, but it is unlike anything else.
In 2016, when they first fought in kickboxing, nobody would have guessed this feud will still go on 7 years later across two different kinds of fighting sports. Pereira won twice against Adesanya in kickboxing and he followed him to MMA where Adesanya became one of its most successful fighters.
Pereira took away whatever he had.
Pereira and Adesanya had an amazing fight before, so their rematch will take place at UFC 287 in the Kaseya Center located in Miami. After their match, it is possible that Pereira will move up to a higher weight class and we are unsure what Adesanya has left to do in the 185-pound division once this battle with his rival finishes.
No matter how these guys got to this moment, their lives are always connected.
This Saturday, Jorge Masvidal from Miami will compete in the co-main event at UFC. He’s up against a welterweight who is ranked 5th in the USA called Gilbert Burns. If Masvidal wins, it could mean he might get to fight Leon Edwards next, even if Dana White says that Colby Covington should be fighting him instead. If Masvidal loses though, he has said he might retire!
UFC 287 is happening at Kaseya Center in Miami and it will feature some pretty exciting fights. Rob Font, who is one of the top 10 bantamweight fighters, will be trying to come out on top against his opponent Adrian Yanez. Kevin Holland also has a fight lined up against Santiago Ponzinibbio. Lastly, Raul Rosas Jr., who is only 18-years-old, gets the chance to win his second UFC match when he goes up against Christian Rodriguez.
This Saturday, April 8th, there will be fights happening on ESPN+. Starting at 6pm ET four of the fights can be seen on ESPN+ and then continue to be shown on ESPN and ESPN+ starting 8 pm ET. The final five fights are only available on an ESPN+ Pay-Per-View event at 10 pm ET. (The numbers in parentheses show the fighters rankings, but don’t worry about that)
Adesanya Aims to Outclass Pereira with Easy Work heading into UFC 281 Rematch
For Israel Adesanya to beat Alex Pereira, he needs to do what he did at UFC 281 in the first four rounds. But this time, he has to make sure that Alex doesn’t knock him out! If you need a better advice, here it is: easy work!
Adesanya has a good understanding of Pereira’s fighting style better than anyone and has proved in their previous fights that he can beat him. He is not merely bragging; he actually succeeded in winning most fights against Pereira. Adesanya knows he can dodge any attacks from Pereira, make him miss most of the time and outclass him as a martial artist overall.
Pereira is really big and he often takes advantage of other people in a very bad way. He thinks he can take on Adesanya, just like he did two times before. Because of that, we don’t think it’s impossible for him to do it again.
I’m leaning more towards Adesanya because I think it’s harder for the winning fighter to fix their mistakes than for the losing one. Adesanya should look back at what happened in round 5 of their fight at UFC 281 – that’s when things started going wrong. We might find it strange, but Pereira has more catching up to do even though they’ve won 3 fights in a row.
Jed Meshew said in his book, Paths to Victory, that it’s not a 50/50 chance between Adesanya and Pereira as we have evidence that Adesanya is the better fighter. Even though Pereira has succeeded twice now with Adesanya outdoing him for most of the time, I don’t think he can make this happen again.
I think Adesanya will win, either by a judges decision or with an knockout punch late in the fight. So I’m picking Adesanya to be the winner.
Tough Showdown
Draft Kings thinks that Gilbert Burns, the favorite contender, has a good chance of winning. But I’m not so sure.
Grappling is a challenge for most people fighting in the welterweight division, including Jorge Masvidal. However, it won’t be easy to take him down since he has lots of experience in the cage and can avoid takedowns from other opponents like Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman. Burns is careful when trying to take him down as attempting to do so uses up a lot of energy.
Masvidal is really tough, he has not been beaten by someone in a fight very often – only twice. That means Burns won’t be able to scare him or make him feel uncomfortable in any way. Fighting on the ground will be tricky for Masvidal but he can still handle it no problem!
This is going to be an exciting fight since both fighters are really good. Burns has more power in his punches, while Masvidal will try to pressure him and find the right moment to land a knockout punch. Masvidal also has an advantage because he can reach further than Burns and use it to his benefit. Even though we haven’t seen him at his best recently – he’s been defeated by Covington and Usman – we still know what a great fighter he is when given the chance.
Even though I’m worried that Masvidal might be thinking about retiring, I still think he has enough to win over Burns in their upcoming fight this Saturday. My prediction is that Masvidal will get the victory by decision.
“Yanez is ‘The Algorithm’
I firmly believe Adrian Yanez is the best boxer in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA. He has been proving this with his excellent performance in his 5 UFC bouts. People like to call him “The Algorithm” because he is so skillful and talented.
Rob Font is good at fighting, but he could have done even better if his punches were a bit stronger. He was doing well during fights against Marlon Vera and Jose Aldo, until they punched him hard and won the fight. It looks like this same thing will happen in his next fight too.
Yanez and Font might end up duking it out with their martial arts skills, but it will probably just be an exciting battle of punches. So far Yanez hasn’t lost any striking fights and until that happens I’m picking him to win this one too.
Someone made a choice and went with Yanez. The chosen one was Yanez.
“Ponzinibbio Looks to Capitalize on Holland’s Ground Game Weakness”
Kevin Holland’s fight against Santiago Ponzinibbio might be a lot of fun to watch since we could see some serious stand up fighting. But that could be ruined if either fighter tries to do something tricky.
In this situation, Ponzinibbio may want to consider adding some wrestling moves to his strategy. This is because Holland has trouble when it comes to wrestling and if Ponzinibbio isn’t careful, he might end up on the ground. Even though Ponzinibbio isn’t an expert wrestler like Matt Hughes, he knows how to put in a few takedowns with his strong striking. It’s dangerous for Ponzinibbio because Holland can easily win if given the chance.
I think Ponzinibbio will be careful and take the shots when it gets dangerous. Until Holland can protect himself from the ground, I don’t have confidence he’ll succeed in the welterweight division. So, my pick is for Ponzinibbio to win by decision.
“Christian Rodriguez Puts Up a Fight at Disadvantage But Rosas Jr is Still the Favorite to Win”
Christian Rodriguez was at a disadvantage from the start when this fight was announced and that got worse when he failed to make weight on Friday. His chances of winning just got a lot smaller.
Raul Rosas Jr. is the youngest person to ever sign with the UFC, and he’s really confident! He’s great at grappling and made of good stuff physically, so a lot of important people think he’ll be successful. If his opponent isn’t completely ready for the fight on that night, Raul will have an easy time winning.
Rodriguez is really good at wrestling, so we expect to see some cool moves in this match if it goes on past the first round. But since Rodriguez is not as strong and fast as Rosas, I think Rosas will gain an advantage by winning positions regularly and eventually score the win with a submission in the second round.
My prediction: Rosas
Some other matches also happened: Chris Curtis beat Kelvin Gastelum, Luana Pinheiro beat Michelle Waterson-Gomez, Joe Pyfer beat Gerald Meerschaert and Chase Sherman beat Karl Williams.
Lupita Godinez beat Cynthia Calvillo, Ignacio Bahamondes beat Trey Ogden, Shayilan Nuerdanbieke defeated Steve Garcia and Jaqueline Amorim won over Sam Hughes in the UFC 287.
