Izzy vs Pereira – Robin Black, Ross Levine react

UFC 281 took place on Saturday, November 12, 2022, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

For the complete and official results, you can go here. For the bonus winners and Venum payout list you can go here.

In the main event, Israel Adesanya fighting out of Auckland, New Zealand took on Alex Pereira fighting out of Danbury, Conn. by way of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the co-main event, UFC women’s strawweight champion Carla Esparza fighting out of Irvine, Calif. met Zhang Weili fighting out of Beijing, China.

Former GLORY middleweight ’Turbo’ Ross Levine – now the Karate Combat world middleweight champion – watched his ex-colleagues Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya go to war in the UFC 281 main event last night. 

Pereira now adds the UFC middleweight strap to his list of accomplishments – but was it an early stoppage and is an immediate rematch warranted? Ross weighs in below, along with Robin Black.

ROSS LEVINE

Who proved to be the better striker – Izzy or Alex?
From a technical perspective, Adesanya clearly has the edge in the striking department, simply due to his variety and repertoire…however power is the great equalizer and Alex Pereira certainly has that gift! They both had some awesome moments in this fight. It was a gift for the fans.

The stoppage:
I do NOT believe the stoppage was too soon. Every fighter wants to be given every last opportunity but the ref is there to do a job. Marc Goddard is one of the best in the world and I do not doubt his opinion to stop that and save Adesanya from himself.

On an immediate rematch:
A rematch definitely makes sense for Adesanya. You have to honor his reign and give him the opportunity to get that back. However, for the UFC…this opens up a lot of opportunities for the division. Can’t wait to see how it plays out in the coming months!

ROBIN BLACK, fight analyst and Karate Combat broadcast team member, had this to say:

“A fight like this fascinating and shows how Pereira is a big-picture master. Izzy won three out of the four rounds and three out of every four minutes that they fought, but Pereira was thinking macro: 25 minute fight, wear the legs down to make him less fluid, less mobile as the fight went on. That suits a guy like him who can hurt a guy at any time. Beautiful fight between two true masters.”

(Article Courtesy of Karate Combat)

FightBookMMA

Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Executive Writer, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a passion for Combat Sports and also a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s also a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.