The Ultimate Fighting Championship has built an
entire pay-per-view main card without revealing its location.
On Friday, UFC President Dana White – who was caught on video
slapping his wife on Dec. 31, 2022 – announced on
multiple platforms the main card lineup of
UFC 287. The event will go down on April 8, and there is still
no official destination on the books although an international
UFC social media page wrote Miami, Florida. The main attraction
will see Alex
Pereira (7-1) put his middleweight belt on the line against
ex-champ Israel
Adesanya (23-2) in a rematch of their shocking UFC 281
battle.
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“Poatan” has been a man possessed since breaking into the UFC in
late 2021. It took the Brazilian a mere three wins to get a crack
at gold, although it came against former kickboxing rival Adesanya,
where Pereira held two victories. In the fifth round, Pereira
struck and put Adesanya away, scoring the first stoppage of “The
Last Stylebender” in MMA. Pereira’s short record in the sport sits
at just seven wins opposite a single defeat that came back in 2015,
with six of his triumphs coming by knockout.
Adesanya saw a remarkable 23-fight win streak at middleweight come
to a crashing halt from the hands of Pereira. The Nigerian by way
of New Zealand first claimed a throne in the UFC by topping
Kelvin
Gastelum in 2019 for the interim strap. Unifying it by knocking
out Robert
Whittaker nearly six months later, Adesanya went on to defend
the 185-pound throne five more times. In the middle of this run,
Adesanya shifted to light heavyweight in an attempt to become a
two-division champ, only to get turned away by Jan
Blachowicz.
Four more fights round out the rest of the main card, and
Pereira-Adesanya will serve as the lone championship bout. The
co-headliner comes at welterweight in a bit of grudge match as
Gilbert
Burns (21-5) squares off with Jorge
Masvidal (35-16). The “featured fight” slot goes to youngster
Raul
Rosas Jr. (7-0) against 25-year-old prospect Christian
Rodriguez (8-1) at 135 pounds. Additionally, Kevin
Holland (23-9, 1 NC) will battle Santiago
Ponzinibbio (29-6) in a veritable must-win slugfest at
welterweight, while an early “Fight of the Night” contender opens
the pay-per-view offering as Rob Font (19-6)
throws down with Adrian
Yanez (16-3) in an important bantamweight contest.