With the UFC having one of the best month’s in March for fans and is now finished. With the start of April, the UFC is headed to Miami for the rematch main event with new Middleweight champion Alex Pereira. He will be defending his belt for the first time against former Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya (#1). This whole main card is stacked top to bottom, to kick off the main card we have Bantamweight contenders Raul Rosas Jr. (youngest fighter in UFC history) taking on Christian Rodriguez, Welterweights Kevin Holland vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio, And top Bantamweight contenders Rob Font (#6) vs. Adrian Yanez (#12). In the co-main you will have Welterweight contenders Gilbert Burns (#5) facing against Jorge Masvidal (#11).There is also some fights that you don’t wanna miss during the prelims as well like Middleweight contenders Chris Curtis (#14) vs. Kelvin Gastelum (#15), and Women’s Strawweight contenders Michelle Waterson- Gomez (#10) vs. Luana Pinheiro (#15). There was also some really good matchups that were canceled last second with Welterweight Li Jingliang having to be out due to a spine injury against Michael Chiesa (#15), and Heavyweight Chris Barnett is out against Chase Sherman who withdrew due to undisclosed reasons.
Now let's talk about the main event, Alex Pereira (7-1) is coming into this fight with a seven-fight winning streak beating Middleweight contenders like Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland, Bruno Silva, and Andreas Michailidis. Pereira has only been fighting in the UFC since 2021, and only been fighting MMA professionally since 2015. His fighting Career started way back in 2012 with his Kickboxing career finishing at (33-7) as a two-time Middleweight and Light Heavyweight world champion in “Glory Kickboxing”. He has also fought Adesanya twice in kickboxing, coming out with the win both times with the first fight winning by decision and the second fight by KO. Some may consider Alex Pereira the greatest Kickboxer of all time, and for him to have only Seven fights in his MMA career and he’s already Middleweight Champion of the UFC.
Israel Adesanya (23-2) is coming into this fight with a one loss fight streak, with his undefeated record at Middleweight ending against Alex Pereira at UFC 281. But he has almost lapped his division when he was Middleweight champion beating top contenders like Robert Whittaker, Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa, Yoel Romero, Kelvin Gastelum, Derek Brunson, and Anderson Silva. Adesanya started his MMA career in 2012, but while doing MMA he was also fighting in one of the best kickboxing leagues in the world “Glory Kickboxing”. His kickboxing career started in 2010, finishing his kickboxing career with a record of (75-5) with his last fight ending with a KO loss against Alex Pereira in 2017. A year goes by and Adesanya makes his UFC debut at Middleweight against Robert Wilkinson at UFC 221, Adesanya made it look easy against Robert coming out with a second round finish ending by KO/TKO. Another year goes by and he is now fighting for the interim Middleweight Title against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236, Adesayna came out with the win by decision. Six months later Adesanya would fight Rob Whittaker for the Middleweight title, and was able to beat Rob by 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 co-main. Gilbert Burns (21-5) is coming into this fight with a one-fight win streak beating Neal Magny with a first-round submission finish at UFC 283 back in January. His last fight before that was against rising contender Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 273 losing by a controversial decision. Burns made his debut in the UFC way back in 2014 beating top welterweight contenders like Stephen Thompson, Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia, and Gunnar Nelson. Gilbert Burns has even fought for the Welterweight title against former champion Kamaru Usman losing by KO/TKO. Burns has been fighting almost his whole life starting with Jiu-Jitsu when he was a child, when his father offered to fix his customers car in trade for three months of Jiu-Jitsu lessons for all his boys. Burns has competed in Jiu-Jitsu all over the world and even came in second place at the “World Jiu-Jitsu Championship” back in 2009, and won the tournament two years later in 2011. After that, Burns decided to make MMA his main focus and started his MMA career and debut in 2012.
Jorge Masvidal (35-16) is coming into this fight with a three-fight losing streak losing to former champion Kamaru Usman twice and Colby Covington by decision. But he’s also beat top welterweight contenders like Nate Diaz, Ben Askren, Darren Till, and Donald Cerrone, and Michael Chiesa. Masvidal Started his fighting career way back when he was still in school fighting on the streets with Kimbo Slice, he even competed in Wrestling at his middle school but was kicked off the team due to his bad grades. He then began training in Karate and MMA. Masvidal has fought in all the big MMA leagues like AFC, Strikeforce, and Bellator. His first professional MMA bout was way back in 2003 and he didn’t make his UFC debut until 10 years later fighting against Tim Means.
UFC 287 is gonna be a banger and you don't wanna miss out on this one, who do you guys have winning the Main and Co-main event? Let me know in the comments below. Lets goooo!
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