Adesanya vs Pereira 2 UFC 287 main event title fight odds, preview, and card

Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 for the UFC’s middleweight championship. Now, Pereira will defend his middleweight title against Adesanya at UFC 287 on April 8 in Miami. This rematch will be the second time these two battle inside the octagon, but UFC 287 will be the fourth time they fight, they fought twice in kickboxing. 

Adesanya vs Pereira fight preview

The champion is the underdog in this fight and the challenger is the betting favorite. On Betvictor, Alex Pereira has +110 odds to win the fight and Israel Adesanya is a -138 favorite. This is the second straight UFC event that UFC betting sites have the champion as the underdog. Kamaru Usman was the betting favorite when he challenged Leon Edwards at UFC 286. This fight is not the same as Usman vs Edwards because Adesanya has never defeated Pereira in the UFC or kickboxing.

Adesanya has +175 odds to win the fight by decision. Pereira has +175 odds to win the fight by KO, TKO, DQ, or submission. Pereira beat Adesanya by TKO in the 5th round of their last fight at UFC 281. Although Pereira defeated Adesanya twice in kickboxing, Adesanya has a 23-2 MMA record and has a 7-2 title fight record in the UFC. Pereira’s professional MMA record is 7-1.

THE REMATCH. NEXT SATURDAY.

We are one week away from @AlexPereiraUFC vs @Stylebender 2 at #UFC287!! pic.twitter.com/vZ6c11ESVL

— UFC (@ufc) April 1, 2023

Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya

Adesanya is fighting to regain his UFC middleweight championship. This fight could also be Adesanya’s last opportunity to get a victory over Alex Pereira. If Adesanya loses to Pereira for a second time in the UFC, and a fourth time overall, there is no guarantee Adesanya will ever get another opportunity to fight Pereira. Adesanya could be extremely motivated to win at UFC 287 because of the circumstances.

Stylebender has +300 odds to win by KO, TKO, DQ, or submission. The last time Adesanya won a fight by KO/TKO was at UFC 253 in 2020. In his last 10 fights, he won two times by KO/TKO against Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker. According to UFC.com, Adesanya was ahead on the scorecards in their first fight at UFC 281 before he was defeated by Pereira in the last round.

The rematch is just a week away!!

[ #UFC287 Countdown premieres this Saturday at 7pmET on ESPN 2 📺 ] pic.twitter.com/uK5uId23y6

— UFC (@ufc) March 28, 2023

Alex “Poatan” Pereira

Alex Pereira is entering his first UFC title defense in his 9th career MMA fight. This is an opportunity for Pereira to keep his head to head record with Adesanya perfect and to potentially never have to fight him again with a win. Pereira currently has +500 odds to win by decision. Three of his four UFC wins have come by KO/TKO and one was by decision.

Despite being the underdog to win the fight outright, Pereira has better odds than Adesanya to stop the fight in each round. Based on the betting numbers, if the fight doesn’t go to the judges, Pereira is the favorite to win. Although Adesanya has only been stopped once in his UFC career, not even in his light heavyweight fight against Jan Blachowicz, Pereira was the guy who did it.

All odds are subject to change.

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