A massive middleweight title rematch between newly crowned champion Alex Pereira and the man he dethroned, Israel Adesanya has been announced as the main event for UFC 287 on April 8th in Miami, Florida.
The history between these two goes way back to their kickboxing days, where Pereira proved to be Adesanya’s nemesis, beating him twice in 2016 and 2017 before ‘The Last Stylebender’s’ rise to stardom in the UFC and long title reign.
That set the stage for a blockbuster showdown between the two when Pereira also finally made the switch to MMA and began racking up big wins in the UFC himself.
The fight finally happened in November of last year, and as had often been the case in their previous meetings, Adesanya appeared to be getting the better of the action, only to then be TKO’d in the fifth and final round.
Though that means Adesanya now has no less than three losses in a row to Pereira, the fact that he was previously unbeaten at middleweight in MMA and had five successful title defenses as the UFC champion has afforded him another chance to get revenge, but the pressure will surely be weighing heavily on his shoulders now knowing that another defeat would surely put an end to the rivalry once and for all.
Pereira vs. Adesanya’s rematch will headline a UFC 287 card that will also feature a newly announced welterweight showdown between Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Burns in the co-main event.
