Official – Israel Adesanya headlines UFC 281 in title showcase against Alex Pereira on November 12.

Israel Adesanya
Mandatory Credit: Zuffa LLC

A highly-anticipated middleweight grudge match is slated to land in New York City on November 12. – with undisputed UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya headlining a Madison Square Garden UFC 281 pay-per-view showing against Brazilian rival, the #5 ranked challenger, Alex Pereira.

Both featuring just last month on the pay-per-view portion of UFC 276 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada – Adesanya headlined the International Fight Week card with a unanimous decision win over Jared Cannonier.

As for Pereira, the former two-weight GLORY Kickboxing champion featured in a high-profile main card matchup against the surging contender, Sean Stickland – notching his third UFC win with a blistering first round knockout win.

The UFC confirmed the main event clash between Adesanya and Pereira following an initial report from ESPN SportsCenter.

“As announced on @SportsCenter, we have a MASSIVE main event set for MSG (Madison Square Garden) (apple emoji). @Stylebender (Israel Adesanya) vs. Alex Pereira is confirmed for #UFC281!”

Twice sharing the ring during their respective runs with leading kickboxing outfit, GLORY – Adesnanya first suffered a contentious unanimous judging loss to Pereira, before a subsequent rematch marked Adesanya’s first combat sports knockout defeat – with the Brazilian rendering the City Kickboxing staple unconscious with a now-infamous check left hook. 

Securing successful title defense number five back in July, Adesnaya chalked up a forgettable unanimous decision win over Cannonier, adding to prior successes against Robert Whittaker, Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa, and Yoel Romero during his run as undisputed division packleader.

As for Pereira, July’s knockout triumph came off the back of a hard-fought judging win against compatriot, Bruno Silva, as well as a UFC debut flying knee KO win against Andreas Michailidis. 

1 thought on “Official – Israel Adesanya headlines UFC 281 in title showcase against Alex Pereira on November 12.

Comments are closed.