The Ultimate Fighting Championship heads to New York City for UFC 281: Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira live November 12th on ESPN + PPV.
Israel Adesanya is the reigning UFC middleweight champion and he wants to continue his reign as the king of the division, and he will face a worthy adversary in former kickboxing rival Alex Pereia.
Pereira knocked Adesanya out when they competed in kickboxing, and the Brazilian believes he will do the same in Mixed Martial Arts and he quickly climbed the ranks to land a title shot against his longtime foe.
Adesanya isn’t afraid of Pereira and wants to beat him up to put that in the past and show him that he has evolved as a fighter and MMA isn’t the same as kickboxing.
The Co-Main event has UFC women’s strawweight champion Carla Esparza defending her title against the former champion Zhang Weili of China.
Esparza was the inaugural winner of the strawweight title and lost it by stoppage to Joanna Jędrzejczyk, she worked her way up to another title shot against Rose Namajunas and beat her by decision to reclaim the belt. Now she will be in for another tough test against tough striker Weili.
Esparza vs. Weili will be a classic Wrestler versus striker match, if Esparza can press the action she can win, but Weili is elusive and hits hard so Esparza will need to be cautious and avoid any counter shots.
Dustin Poirier vs Michael Chandler will be an exiting match up between two top 155 pounders and it could be fight of the night.
UFC 281 Fight Card
Middleweight Championship – Israel Adesanya (Champ) vs. Alex Pereira
Women’s Strawweight Championship – Carla Esparza (Champ) vs. Zhang Weili
Lightweight – Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler
Bantamweight – Frankie Edgar vs. Chris Gutierrez
Lightweight – Dan Hooker vs. Claudio Puelles
Event: UFC 281: Adesanya vs. Pereia
Venue: Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY
Date and Time: Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 10:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM PT
TV / Live Stream: ESPN+ Pay-Per-View
