- FanDuel Sportsbook is giving Israel Adesanya -215 odds to defeat Alex Pereira +185 at UFC 281.
- Pereira is coming off a first-round KO win over Sean Stickland.
- We review the latest Adesanya vs Pereira odds with an early betting pick for UFC 281
Two former kickboxing foes are set to share the octagon at UFC 281, Live from Madison Square Garden In New York City On Saturday, November 12.
Alex Pereira’s fast rise in the UFC has led him to a title shot after just 3 UFC fights. “Poatan” holds two wins over Adesanya, now “Stylebender” has the chance to shine after being criticized for his fighting style in his last 3 title defenses.
Adesanya vs Pereira Odds
| Fighter | Odds |
| Israel Adesanya | -215 |
| Alex Pereira | +185 |
The latest UFC 281 odds via FanDuel Sportsbook are giving Alex Pereira a 35% chance of defeating middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. That’s a $185 profit on a $100 wager on “Poatan”. The champion, Adesanya welcomes the challenge and is relishing the opportunity to prove the doubters wrong once again. Adesanya is averaging -200 across the majority of sports betting apps.
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Latest UFC 281 Odds Comparison
Betting on Adesanya vs Pereira
Pereira (6-1), holds two wins in kickboxing over Izzy. The first was a decision victory and the second was a KO in the 3rd round. When it comes to comparing their kickboxing fights to the upcoming MMA one at UFC 281, you are looking at two completely different beasts.
It’s clear as day that Pereira has been fast-tracked all the way to a title shot against Adesanya, due to the history that’s there. That’s not to say “Potan” doesn’t deserve a crack at Adesanya, it’s just perfect matchmaking, and win or lose we will likely have a blockbuster rematch in the future.
Pereira hits like a truck and made light work of Sean Strickland in his last bout at UFC 276, knocking out Strickland in the first round. Pereira was a slight underdog heading into the fight at +150 and +110 by fight night. This tells us the many question marks online sportsbooks had around the credibility of Pereira against a top-ten opponent.
Adesanya (23-1) has only lost once in the UFC when he moved up to light heavyweight and failed against Jan Blachowicz. Since then “Stylebender” moved back down to middleweight and picked up three straight wins against Marvin Vettori, Robert Whittaker, and Jared Cannonier.
Adesanya now finds himself in a position where the level of competition has become so high, that he prefers to take less risk and reap the rewards of not having to engage in a war. As a wise man once, said hit and not get hit. However, in MMA this policy isn’t the greatest approach to win over fans, especially when you are the biggest active star in the company.
In Adesanya’s last fight against Cannonier, the oddsmakers were confident that the champs style would be too illusive for the “Killa Gorilla” and it certainly was. Cannonier was a +460 underdog to Adesanya’s -500 odds. The fight before that saw Adesanya rematching against Robert Whittaker, the odds for the rematch flipped from their first fight. Pitting Adesanya as a solid -330 favorite, and while it wasn’t a clean-cut win like the first fight “Stylebender” won convincingly by decision.
At UFC 281, we can expect Adesanya to fight smart like he always does. There will definitely be an extra element of urgency from Adesanya when it comes to countering Pereira. Given Pereira’s power, I don’t foresee a situation like the Gastelum fight where its back and forth for five rounds. In the end, I see Adesanya’s opening odds of -166 a steal to pick up a decisive win over Alex
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Adesanya “I run towards the fire”
“Have I ever shied away from a fight?” Adesanya said. “I’ve always picked the guy no one wants to fight. The guy everyone runs away from, I run towards. So I run toward the fire, and this is no different. And again, after he beat me in Brazil, I never had any plans of trying to get revenge or anything like that, because I don’t hold onto things, I let go of things. But again, I’m telling you, the universe has presented this to me and it’s right there, it’s the perfect alley-oop, and I’m going to slam that b****.
“I’m really excited to have someone — finally — who after the first round or the second round, they realize they can’t do s*** and just want to be defensive, I’m excited to have someone who’s going to attack me, who’s going to actually try and finish me,” he added. “And this is the story of this fight, because he’s done it before in the past in kickboxing, so for me it’s like, is he going to get knocked out or am I going to get knocked out?
“This guy is not going to be gun-shy. He’s going to come at me from bell to bell, and I’m going to do the same. And every time someone brings the fight, I raise the bar.”