UFC 281 Previews
UFC 281 kicks off this Saturday at MSG, and I have 2 words for it: LETS GO!!
Adesanya (-210) v Pereira (+170)
The only man to beat Izzy has been Pereira. Albeit was in Glory Kickboxing back in 2016 via unanimous decision, then again 2017 by knock out. Simply put, AP is a dangerous man. Israel is undefeated at middleweight. But so is Pereira. Pereira comes into the bout with a 4-0 record in the UFC middleweight division, and coming off of two monster knockouts.
Expect to see Adesanya fight this fight in a similar fashion to the way he’s been defending his belt. Israel will be working at keeping distance, and striking inside quick, and immediately getting out of Pereira’s striking distance.
The only pushback from Izzy fighting his reserved style is that Pereira has shown he has knock out power, and he can strike quickly, viciously, and from a distance. This is stylistically one of the best middleweight fights we’ve ever seen. Get your popcorn ready.
Esparza (+275) v Weili (-350)
The Co-Main event spotlight is nothing new for Weili. Weili has won Fight of the Night as a co-main before when she pieced JJ so bad that JJ looked like Sheen from Jimmy Neutron when Sheen got really smart. This fight is debatably still the best woman’s fight in UFC history. Ever since, Weili has been up and down; losing a couple fights to Rose by KO & decision, and then knocking out JJ. Weili is a strawweight beast. If Esparza can come out and make a bold statement, we may have a new strawweight monster.
Esparza comes into the bout with a much better ground game than Weili. We will see Esparza try to bring Weili down to the ground. Not only does this play into Esparza’s strengths, it takes away Weili’s knock out power. Esparza was able to grapple Rose and punish her on the ground, ending the fight with a rear naked choke which led to Esparza winning Performance of the Night.
Esparza came into the UFC on fire and fizzled out ever since. Carla was able to beat Rose again to obtain the strawweight title in a second wind. Will we see the fireworks shot back off by the strawweight this Saturday night?
Poirier (-225) v Chandler (+185)
The Peoples main event! I wouldn’t be surprised if the UFC puts a sound alert on before this fight because these two guys are going to be throwing absolute bombs.
Poirier and Chandler both want to finish the fight, and they want to do it with their fists. During the stare down, Dustin and Chandler were eager to get after each other. This may be the fight of the night. These guys have a good chance of walking out of MSG $50k richer.
Poirier has more speed than Chandler, and is a top of the class fighter. We have all seen Dustin at his best, and he can be a stone cold killer. One of the few people on the planet with a chin solid enough to eat some punches from Dustin is Chandler. Chandler is extremely comfortable in close combat. If Chandler scores a knockout anticipate it to be while coming off of a clinch, or a dynamite counterstrike.
