Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira Title Fight Confirmed for UFC 281 in November

Israel Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight title against Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 281 on Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, it was announced Friday.

"They're part of history—part of his story," Adesanya said Friday of his previous two losses to Pereira, per ESPN's Marc Raimondi. "The judges gave him the nod in the first, and the second he took me out in the third round. Now, it's time for my story."

A title bout between Adesanya and Pereira was all but guaranteed following UFC 276 last month. Adesanya beat Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision, while Pereira secured a first-round knockout against Sean Strickland.

"When you’re sitting here in my position, you can’t give too many guarantees," UFC President Dana White said last month after UFC 276. "I can say, 'Stylistically on paper this should be,' you know, or, 'We feel this is gonna be'—I f--king guarantee you. I absolutely, positively guarantee you that the next fight that Israel Adesanya fights will be bats--t nuts."

Pereira owns two kickboxing wins over Adesanya. The first came in April 2016 when Adesanya fell to Pereira via unanimous decision. The second came in March 2017, when Pereira knocked out Adesanya with his signature left hook.

Adesanya, who is 23-1 in mixed martial arts, saw his only loss come against Jan Blachowicz in March 2021 at UFC 259. He made his UFC debut in February 2018 against Rob Wilkinson and is currently tied for third on ESPN's pound-for-pound MMA list with Charles Oliveira.

The 33-year-old has made five successful defenses of his title, and a win over Pereira would match Anderson Silva for the longest winning streak in division history at 13 wins, per ESPN Stats & Information.

Pereira, who is 6-1, has three career wins in the UFC. In addition to defeating Strickland last month, he has wins over Bruno Silva and Andreas Michailidis.

The Brazilian said after UFC 276 that he was looking forward to a potential bout against Adesanya:

"He’s going to have to look better next time. If he looks like that, it’s no good. He’s been watching my development. He knows I’m dangerous, he knows the risk he would be taking. He will have to look better, for sure. He’ll look better and I’ll make him get the fans thrilled.”

It seems like this might be the first of many bouts between the two at the UFC level.