With the UFC having one of the best months in March for fans and it’s over for now. As April begins, the UFC heads to Miami for a main event rematch with new middleweight champion Alex Pereira. He will defend his belt for the first time against former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (No. 1). This main card is fully stacked from top to bottom, to start the main card we have bantamweight contenders Raul Rosas Jr. (youngest fighter in UFC history) with Cristian Rodriguez, Welter Whites Kevin Holland vs. Santiago Ponzenepo, and top bantamweight contenders Rob Font (#6 ) against Adrian Yanez (No. 12). In the co-main game you’ll have lightweight contenders Gilbert Burns (No. 5) taking on Jorge Masvidal (No. 11), there are also some fights you won’t want to miss during the prelims as well as middleweight contender Chris Curtis (No. 14). )) against Kelvin Gastelum (No. 15), Michelle Watterson-Gomez (No. 10) against Luana Pinheiro (No. 15). There were also some really good matches that got canceled at the last second with light heavyweight Li Jingliang having to walk out with a spinal injury against Michael Chiesa (#15), and heavyweight Chris Barnett coming out against Chase Sherman who pulled out for undisclosed reasons.
Now let’s talk about the main event, Alex Pereira (7-1) goes into this fight with a seven fight winning streak by defeating middleweight contenders like Israel Adesanya, Shawn Strickland, Bruno Silva and Andreas Michaelidis. Pereira has only been fighting in the UFC since 2021, and has only fought MMA professionally since 2015. His fighting career began in 2012 with his kickboxing career ending at (33-7) as a two-time world middleweight and heavyweight champion. In “Glory Kickboxing”. He has also fought Adesanya twice in kickboxing, coming off winning both times with the first fight won by decision and the second fight by KO. Alex Pereira might be considered by some to be the greatest kickboxer of all time, he has only seven fights in his MMA career and is already the UFC Middleweight Champion.
Israel Adesanya (23-2) goes into this fight with one loss, as his unbeaten record at middleweight came to an end against Alex Pereira at UFC 281. But he almost cut his division as middleweight champ by defeating top challengers like Robert Whitaker And Marvin Vittori, Paulo Costa, Yoel Romero, Kelvin Gastelum, Derek Bronson and Anderson Silva. Adesanya started his career in MMA in 2012, but while working in MMA he was also fighting in one of the best kickboxing tournaments in the world “Glory Kickboxing”. His kickboxing career started in 2010, where he finished his kickboxing career with a record (75-5) with his last fight ending in a KO loss against Alex Pereira in 2017. A year passes and Adesanya makes his debut in the UFC at middleweight against Robert Wilkinson at UFC 221, Adesanya made it look easy against Robert’s knockout by the end of the second round that ended in a KO/TKO. Another year has passed and he is now fighting for the interim middleweight title against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236, Adesayna coming out with a decision win. Six months later, Adesanya was fighting Rob Whittaker for the middleweight title, and was able to beat Rob with a second round KO/TKO Finish. This Saturday, Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya will be fighting against each other for the fourth time with Alex already beating him in kickboxing twice and MMA once.
Now let’s talk about the common main coil. Gilbert Burns (21-5) goes into this fight with a winning streak by defeating Neil Magney with a first round finish at UFC 283 back in January. His last fight before that was against rookie contender Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 273 which he lost by controversial decision. Burns made his UFC debut in 2014 by defeating top welterweight contenders such as Stephen Thompson, Tyrone Woodley, Demian Maia and Gunnar Nelson. Gilbert Burns even fought for the welterweight title against former champion Kamaru Usman which he lost by KO/TKO. Burns has been fighting almost his entire life starting with Jiu-Jitsu as a child, when his father offered to fix his clients car in trade for three months of Jiu-Jitsu lessons for all his boys. Burns competed in Jiu-Jitsu all over the world, finishing runner-up in the “World Jiu-Jitsu Championship” in 2009, and winning the championship two years later in 2011. After that, Burns decided to make MMA his main focus and started his MMA career. It debuted in 2012.
Jorge Masvidal (35-16) goes into this fight by losing three straight matches to former two-time champ Camaro Usman and Colby Covington by decision. But he also beat top welterweight competitors like Nate Diaz, Ben Askren, Darren Till, Donald Cerrone and Michael Chiesa. Masvidal started his fighting career while still in school fighting in the streets with Kimbo Slice, he even competed in Wrestling in his middle school but got kicked off the team due to his poor grades. Then he started training in karate and mixed martial arts. Masvidal has fought in all the big MMA tournaments like AFC, Strikeforce and Bellator. His first professional MMA match was in 2003 and he didn’t make his UFC debut until 10 years later fighting against Tim Means.
UFC 287 is going to be awesome and you don’t want to miss this game, who won the main event and co? Let me know in the comments below. Let’s go!