Israel Adesanya faces fierce rival Alex Pereira tonight at UFC 281 in New York. The reigning UFC middleweight champion was beaten by the Brazilian back in 2016 and 2017 during their professional kickboxing days.
Last time out, at Glory of Heroes 7, Pereira handed Adesanya the first and only stoppage loss of his combat sports career via a vicious left hook knockout. Now, Adesanya will have a chance to settle the score in his mixed martial arts.
What time does it start?
The early prelims will start at 11pm UK time with the prelims following at 1am on early Sunday morning. The main card then begins at 3am with Dan Hooker vs Claudio Puelles kicking off the action.
How to watch?
UFC 281 is being broadcasted on BT Sport for UK viewers, with the broadcaster’s app and website also streaming the fights to all good internet-connected devices including smart TVs, tablets, and mobile phones.
Date/venue
Adesanya vs Pereira takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, November 12, with the card running up until early Sunday morning
Full card
Main card
Israel Adesanya (C) vs Alex Pereira (middleweight title)
Carla Esparza (C) vs Weili Zhang (women’s strawweight title)
Dustin Poirier vs Michael Chandler (lightweight)
Frankie Edgar vs Chris Gutierrez (bantamweight)
Dan Hooker vs Claudio Puelles (lightweight)
Prelims
Brad Riddell vs Renato Moicano (lightweight)
Erin Blanchfield vs Molly McCann (women’s flyweight)
Dominick Reyes vs Ryan Spann (light heavyweight)
Andre Petroski vs Wellington Turman (middleweight)
Early prelims
Matt Frevola vs Ottman Azaitar (lightweight)
Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs Silvan Gomez Juarez (women’s strawweight)
Michael Trizano vs Seung Woo Choi (featherweight)
*Order subject to change
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Odds
Adesanya win 8/15
Pereira win 9/5
Draw 64/1
*Odds courtesy of Betfair are correct at the time of publication
Quotes
Adesanya: “For me, I’ve pretty much cleaned out the division and now I’m lapping it again. So, I cleared the way. He should be grateful.
“He wouldn’t be here without me. My run to the title was a lot more impressive than what he’s done. So, he should be grateful he is here because of me.”
Pereira: “There’s a lot of people who think I wasn’t deserving, including Adesanya and his team. Originally when I came into the UFC, he said he wanted to fight me.
“But as soon as I started to fight people, they changed the narrative, they spun things around, started to run around and said, ‘maybe I don’t want to face him again’. I think I screwed his mind a little bit. I think he’s a little bit unbalanced psychologically on this one.”
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