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Israel Adesanya will not have to attend lengthy earlier than getting a shot to regain his middleweight championship. Adesanya will rematch new champion Alex Pereira in the principle occasion of UFC 287 on April 8, UFC president Dana White introduced on Friday. The location for the occasion continues to be to be decided.
Pereira (7-1) and Adesanya (23-2) confronted off in the principle occasion of UFC 281 this previous November, with Pereira scoring a dramatic stoppage within the fifth spherical whereas down on the official scorecards. With the win, Pereira received the middleweight championship in simply his fourth UFC bout and eighth skilled bout general.
The loss was Adesanya’s first loss as a middleweight — his solely different blended martial arts loss got here in opposition to Jan Blachowicz at gentle heavyweight — and ended his run of 5 profitable title defenses.
The pair entered their first UFC assembly with historical past. Pereira defeated Adesanya twice within the kickboxing ring. While their first assembly was a hotly disputed resolution, Pereira knocked Adesanya out of their rematch.
White additionally introduced that the co-main occasion at UFC 287 would see former welterweight title challengers Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal face off in a giant showdown.
Earlier in January, Burns picked up a primary spherical submission of Neil Magny. That victory helped him rebound from an April 2022 loss to Khamzat Chimaev, which ranked as top-of-the-line fights of the yr.
Masvidal is on a three-fight dropping skid, having twice misplaced to then-welterweight champion Kamaru Usman earlier than additionally falling to Colby Covington.
Usman is about to rematch Leon Edwards, who defeated Usman at UFC 278. Edwards and Masvidal have long-standing dangerous blood courting again to a backstage brawl in March 2019 and a win (or loss) by each Edwards and Masvidal might see the pair set for a battle down the highway, whereas Burns will look to proceed choosing up wins to battle his means again to a second shot at championship glory.
White additionally introduced the undercard for UFC 287 would characteristic Kevin Holland vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio at welterweight, 19-year-old phenom Raul Rosas Jr. taking up Christian Rodriguez and bantamweight contenders Adrian Yanez and Rob Font squaring off.
