The main MMA promotion of the world returns to New York! On the night of November 13 Moscow time, the 281st numbered UFC tournament will be held at the Madison Square Garden arena, which will attract the attention of the public with two “title winners”, a chic battle in the Islam Makhachev division and a farewell to the eminent veteran.
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Adesanya — Pereira
The fight for the belt in the middle division
An amazing plot awaits us in the main event: the dominant UFC champion Israel Adesanya will fight with the thunder of his division Alex Pereira.
How many such contenders were on the way of the New Zealander, and how many he passed without any problems … But everything will be different here, because the Brazilian won twice Izzy in kickboxing matches. Alex took the first fight on points, and in the second he sent the future champion into a deep sleep.
The sixth defense of the title puts pressure on Adesanya not only because of the serious danger of a second defeat in his career. During the last fights, only the lazy did not pour slop on the owner of the belt because of unspectacular, extremely cautious fights in which Israel does not force events, but works at a distance and accumulates points. What can not be said about Pereira, who had only seven meetings in mixed martial arts. In the last fight, Alex smashed Sean Strickland and, having knocked out a title chance, began preparations for a repeat of the viral highlight from 2017.
Odds: bookmakers still prefer the champion due to more experience in MMA: 1.4 vs. 2.7
Adesanya was criticized — it would be unfair to ignore the terrible last fight of Carla Esparza, in which the American returned the UFC belt. During the 25 minutes of the May fight with Rose Namajunas, the girls waltzed around the cage, but did not fight at all. In a stunning performance of boredom, the victory went to Esparza, who now definitely will not leave the octagon without damage.
Former champion Weili Zhang is one of the most formidable girls in Dana White's league. In the summer, the Chinese woman retired the eminent Joanna Jedrzejczyk (deaf knockout after a roundhouse kick), and now she is going to return the championship belt to her waist.
Odds: 1.2 and 4.0 not in favor of the reigning champion with a series of six victories in a row.
Poirier-Chandler
The UFC lightweight division has a new champion. Our Islam Makhachev returned Khabib Nurmagomedov's belt to Russia, defeating the Brazilian Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 in a dominant manner. Conor McGregor himself…Among those thirsting for a fight with Islam, there are also participants in the third most important battle of the upcoming event. In New York, the octagon will be divided by former title contenders, Americans Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler. The first returns after the early defeat of Oliveira, the second after the great knockout of Tony Ferguson. Two spectacular drummers are preparing a real fire show, which is unlikely to last the entire distance.
Perhaps the fans will witness a serious bid for «Fight of the Year».
Odds: Dustin is the favourite. 1.4 on Diamond and 2.8 on Iron Michael.
Who else to watch on MSG
UFC Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar will hold a farewell match and open the main card Dan Hooker, whose career is in disaster (four losses in the last five bouts).
Prelima will be closed by the meeting of top lightweights Brad RiddellandRenato Moicano. Both, by the way, were not so long ago smeared by Rafael Fiziev, who is rushing to the top.
In addition, in the preliminary card, you should definitely watch the fights of the ex-contender for the light heavyweight title, the last rival of the great Jon Jones < strong>Dominik Reyes, the British lighter Molly McCann,Polish beauty Karolina Kowalkiewicz and the undefeated Ottman Azaitar strong>.
Official promo
What time does the event start
An evening of fighting in New York starts at 02:00 Moscow time. The main card will start at 6 am.
Broadcast
The UFC Fight Pass online platform will broadcast the entire tournament live. On public TV, the tournament will be broadcast from 06:00 Moscow time.
Full fight list UFC 281
Main card:
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Israel Adesanya — Alex Pereira; - —
Carla Esparza — Weili Zhang; - —
Michael Chandler — Dustin Poirier; - —
Frankie Edgar — Chris Gutierrez; - —
Dan Hooker — Claudio Puelles.
Prelims:
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Brad Riddell – Renato Moicano;< /li> - —
Dominique Reyes — Ryan Spann; - —
Erin Blanchfield — Molly McCann; - —
Andre Petroski — Wellington Thurman; - —
Karolina Kowalkiewicz — Silvana Juarez; - —
Ottman Azaitar — Matt Frevola; - —
Giulio Arce — Montel Jackson; - —
Carlos Ullberg — Nicolae Negumereanu.< /li>
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Michael Trizano — Sung Wu Choi;