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UFC 281 Fight Card Preview

Date: November 13, 2022

By Chris Kiely

This article was originally written on Nov. 11, 2022.

Alex Pereira in the octagon.

Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

On Saturday night, the UFC will host UFC 281 in Madison Square Garden. Taking place in the World’s Most Famous Arena every November since 2016, it has produced some unforgettable moments for the company.

Conor McGregor holding two belts simultaneously in 2016. George St. Pierre winning the Middleweight Championship and retiring in 2017. Jorge Masivdal defeating Nate Diaz in 2019 for the symbolic “BMF” Championship.

Now, there is a chance to add to that with UFC 281: Adesanya vs. Pereira.

Over the past four years, 33-year-old Israel Adesanya has evoked memories of some of the greatest UFC Champions of all-time. As a middleweight, he has never lost or been knocked out in the UFC, emphasis on the UFC.

Before he had become middleweight champion, and before he was in the UFC, Israel began as a professional kickboxer. His final kickboxing fight was in March of 2017, against Alex Pereira, who had defeated Israel by split decision a year earlier.

In the third round, Pereira dropped Izzy to the ground, where the eventual UFC champion laid without trying to get back up. With such an impressive record, it looks almost unreal to see footage of Adesanya laid out.

Now Pereira, who made his UFC debut a year ago last week, has won three-straight fights by dominating fashion and has earned his opportunity at the title.

With Adesanya having defended his title five times, including two this year, it makes for a perfect opportunity for him to face his rival head on and overcome the only major kryptonite he has dealt with.

The card also includes a title fight in the women’s strawweight division and a feature bout between two of the most entertaining fighters in the stacked Lightweight division.

With that being said, here is your fight card preview for Saturday’s UFC 281 in New York City.

 

Early Prelim Card

Nicolae Negumereanu screams in satisfaction after a win.

Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

You know you are going to witness a big fight card when there are five fights on the early prelim card! In early prelims, there are two fights that I find most intriguing.

First, you have the opening fight on the card, Carlos Ulberg and Nicolae Negumereanu.

Ulberg will be the first of many fighters on this card who are kickboxing specialists. Having won two fights already this year, the light-heavyweight will be looking to one of best years for fighters in his division in 2022.

His opponent, Negumeranu, is on a four-fight win streak since losing in his UFC debut. In a match such as this, where both fighters are looking to tie a nice bow on the year, I expect this fight to not go to distance.

For a winner, I will pick Ulberg, mainly due to the advantage in his striking ability.

The second fight to watch in the early prelim is Matt Frevola versus Ottman Azaitar. This was a match originally scheduled all the way back in January 2021 for UFC 257, which was cancelled.

Azaitar is Moroccan fighter, who has not fought since September 2020, but is another guy that has the knockout power to prevent his nightshifts from lasting too long. It shows mightily with his record of 13-0.

His opponent is Matt Frevola, who is 4-3-1 in the UFC, and is the epitome of a “kill or be killed” fighter. He has an impressive win over Genaro Valdez, as well as being overwhelmingly defeated from Arman Tsarukyan.

Frevola has shown to be susceptible to early first round knockouts, which is I have Azaitar winning by KO.

 

Prelim Card

Molly McCann in the octagon.

Carmen Mandato/Getty Images/AFP

In the prelims, the fight that will attract the most attention is Erin Blanchfield vs. Molly McCann, which also has the biggest line on the entire card.

While Meatball Molly has become a viral fighter, the spread on this fight says that this fight should not have been made. Blanchfield is 4-0 in the UFC, 8-1 overall, and has two impressive wins in a row. Her ground game is what makes her such a massive favorite.

As a blackbelt, she seems like a fighter that could drown Molly on the canvas and set herself up as a title challenger.

While Blanchfield has been on the high road during entire UFC tenure, Molly has had a recent 180 in her career trajectory. Her three-straight wins have made her relationship with fellow scouser Paddy Pimblett and her post-fight drinking go viral on social media.

However, Blanchfield, who will be a hometown favorite in New York, is the favorite for a reason. While I do not love doing this, I expect Blanchfield to win by submission.

The second fight to watch for is Dominick Reyes and Ryan Spann at light heavyweight. Now, Reyes is a fighter that has been receiving heavy criticism for his three-fight losing streak. However, this is a streak of opponents that makes Tony Ferguson’s losing streak incomparable.

All of Reyes’ loses have been to the three of the last four UFC Light Heavyweight champions (Jones, Blachowicz, Prochazka). He is still a phenomenally athletic fighter in the division and has great game on his feet.

Ryan Spann is a fighter who has had much of an up and down career. He is also a fighter who is great on his feet, who I could see knocking Reyes out in a telephone booth style fight.

However, Reyes has been training with the Brazilian monsters that are Alex Pereira and Glover Teixeira. I see him being much more poised and winning in the end.

 

2Dustin Poirier vs. 5Michael Chandler

Dustin Poirier celebrates after a monster win.

Getty Images

When you talk about the UFC Lightweight Division, it is star power for days. The division has made it customary for their fighters to be in the featured fights ahead of title fight main events.

That is fit to a T with Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler in UFC 281. To make this fight even juicer, the two men had an altercation at UFC 276 Octagon side.

When looking at Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier, he possesses one of the greatest records when examining his opponents. The record includes wins over former UFC champions Eddie Alvarez, Max Holloway, and Conor McGregor, as well as victories over Justin Gaethje, and Dan Hooker.

He has an intimidating combination on his feet, with his boxing and iron chin. On the ground, he is as equally as great at pushing the pace and winning by submission. He is after all the only guy to put Khabib in a guillotine.

For Chandler, he has quickly grown his notoriety in the sport and made himself a must watch. Last November, he and Gaethje had the fight of the year in MSG. This time, he looks to repeat that, only on the winning side this time.

While Dustin is indeed a black belt, Chandler will have an advantage on the ground, being one of the best wrestlers at 155 pounds. He showed this by how he was able to fend off Charles Olivera’s submissions and stay in guard in the first round.

However, as Chandler displayed a year ago, he does lack in the stamina department, a feature for opponents that Dustin has exploited for years. My expectation on this bout is that Chandler will try to go for the massive punch, while Dustin lands the better shots overall, and wins by decision.

 

Champion Carla Esparza vs. 2Zhang Weili

Zhang Weili celebrates after a win.

Zhe Ji/Getty Images

The co-main event features two fighters competing for the UFC women’s strawweight title: Champion Carla Esparza and Zhang Weili.

Anyone who is familiar with the sport knows that the last title fight in the division was one that left a sour taste in many people’s mouths and is being looked at as one of the worst UFC title fights ever.

Esparza and former champion Rose Namajunas were the octagon for 25 minutes in UFC 274 and did frankly nothing. The consensus is that Rose lost the fight, but Carla did not deserve to win it either.

Now to be fair, Esparza’s second most recent win was an incredible knockout over then-undefeated Xiaonan Yan. Her advantage over Weili will undoubtably be her wrestling, where she is impeccable at keeping her opponents on the ground for the remainder of the round. She just needs three rounds of getting a takedown, and she can expect Bruce Buffer to say “and still.”

Despite Esparza being the champ, Weili is over -350 favorite, and her record shows why. Her record consists of wins over Jessica Aguilar, Tecia Torres, Jessica Andrade, as well as tow wins over Joanna Jedrzejczyk that put her in retirement.

Despite the exhaustion that comes from facing a wrestler like Esparza, I have Weili winning by knockout, to make her the third straight UFC Women’s Strawweight to win the title a second time.

 

Champion Israel Adesanya vs. 4Alex Pereira

Israel Adesanya walks off with his title belt.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The UFC 281 card will be capped off with a main event that sounds like it is coming straight off a script of a Rocky or Creed movie. A champion gets embarrassed. He moves to a different league, becomes the champion, and then has his archrival come and try to repeat history.

Israel Adesanya has now been the champion longer than anyone else currently. His reign includes a definitive win over Marvin Vettori, a demolition of Paulo Costa, and two wins over the definitive No. 1 contender, Robert Whittaker.

While many criticize that his defenses have been boring and that he lacks the “knockout power,” those takes have fallen on deaf ears after Kamaru Usman’s five-time defended title was lost in the last round to Leon Edwards.

For the advantage aspect, Izzy does hold a superiority in grappling, although you know the champion does not want to win by just going for takedowns against his hated opponent.

As for the Brazilian Potoan, he does have the two victories over Izzy that people mention. However, an unbiased watcher could say Adesanya won by decision in the first fight and was leading before he got knocked out in the second.

It should also be mentioned that neither of the fights were blatant cases of one fighter outclassing the other. Pereira had to work mightily hard to secure those two W’s.

However, there is no denying how much of a killer Pereira is. The mental edge is there, despite how many times Adesanya blows it off. I can personally say he is the first UFC fighter I have ever seen that made me say “I would be terrified if I was in a room with this man.”

His first fight saw him nearly decapitate Andreas Michailidis with a flying knee. Unlike most of Izzy’s opponents that have had to consider the counters by the Nigerian kickboxer when walking him down, Pereira is not one of those guys. His gameplan and use of that left hand is something every one of opponents need to watch out for.

As for a prediction, I either say that Izzy will win by decision, or his bogeyman will become his superior with a knockout victory. With Periera’s lack of quality opponents in the division, I will stick with Adesanya as my final prediction.

In the world’s most famous arena, there has been some iconic fights. Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta, Joe Louis vs. Rocky Marciano, Ali and Frazier’s “Fight of the Century,” Louis vs. Holyfield, and McGregor vs. Alvarez have been unforgettable moments.

With a fight that has this kind of story, be ready for this main event to potentially be added to that elite list.

Chris Kiely can be reached at christopher.kiely@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Previews

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