Pereira vs. Adesanya Prediction on April 9, 2023

Match info

On the night of Sunday, April 9, at 12:00 AM (00:00) local time to be more precise, the big men’s MMA UFC 287 tournament will take place in the United States. The main event will be a middleweight rematch between former title holder Israel Adesanya and reigning champion Alex Pereira, which will be held at the Miami-Dade Arena in Miami, Florida.

Meeting statistics

The current form of Pereira

Pereira appeared in mixed martial arts quite recently but soared to the title fight (due to the fact that Adesanya had already upset all the other contenders). The Brazilian fighter was the kryptonite for Adesanya and became the champion in his style at the UFC 281 event back in November – losing the fight outright, he waited for the moment and finished off the champion in the last round.

Before MMA, Pereira fought in kickboxing, and in the UFC he had only four fights, including the championship – in each, of course, he won, three times by knockout. He has non-standard anthropometry. And, based on this, he also fights outside the box. He’s under two meters tall, with long limbs, and there’s even a foot of a very large size, with which he can swim without flippers. Joke aside, his main strength is his left arm. Most of his knockouts are the right straight and left hook. This is what he usually delivers. When Pereira presses and realizes that he’s mentally cutting down an opponent, he doesn’t stop.

The current form of Adesanya

Adesanya is also a former kickboxer but has been in the UFC for much longer – since 2018. Being the middleweight champion, he wanted another title and rose to a higher category, but he didn’t get lucky – Jan Błachowicz simply ran him over last February, actively using the fight.

After that embarrassment, the Nigerian-born fighter seemed to have been falling apart. He stopped fighting brightly and spectacularly, and won three fights in a sparing mode, without risk and very carefully. Why does the duel with Pereira happen? Well, here he’s again, waiting for revenge, and, by the way, is again a favorite in the eyes of the best betting sites for placing wagers on UFC/MMA, as well as most experts.

Head-to-head encounters

Three times the fighters met each other (twice according to the rules of kickboxing) and Pereira won all three times.

Comparison

The three previous fights between these opponents were held in a standing position and according to a similar scenario. It’s already obvious that in order to win, Adesanya needs to change something. We’ll see whether or not will Adesanya try to drag the fight to the ground given that he’s technically better prepared...

Match analytics

We expect that the confrontation will be heated to the limit, but there won’t be an early winner. The audience will be in suspense until the very final gong, and Adesanya will cope, transfer the duel to the ground, and exhausting the opponent will help him.

Our prediction: the fight will go to the distance. Pnxbet.com set odds of 1.92 on this.

Results of the forecast

Successful forecast. Victory Adesanya