Valentina Shevchenko picks Israel Adesanya to beat Alex Pereira at UFC 287

Valentina Shevchenko feels that Israel Adesanya has the advantage against Alex Pereira at UFC 287.

Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira are set to lock horns in the UFC 287 main event. This will be a rematch of their UFC 281 main event which happened back in November, 2022.

Speaking in a recent interview, Valentina Shevchenko noted that Adesanya will have the advantage in the rematch. The former Flyweight champion, however, noted that Pereira is skillful and could be a threat.

“Alex [Pereira], he did like amazing fight and he took his victory. Like in the moment, when he need to it was kind of like yes or yes, it's now or it's never. Definitely he's very skillful but I think Israel, he will like adjust, like his style and now he's like as he was being in the fight and I still think that Israel has the advantage,” Valentina Shevchenko gave her prediction while talking to James Lynch on the MMA Pros Pick Segment on his YouTube channel.

Pereira stopped his longstanding opponent Israel Adesanya two minutes into the fifth round of the UFC 281 main event to win the middleweight championship, improving to 3-0 across two sports in his ongoing series with "The Last Stylebender." This weekend in Miami, the two resume their feud, but this time Pereira arrives as the champion.

When Pereira switched to kickboxing and joined the UFC, facing and beating Adesanya was his main goal.

The Brazilian had won both times they had faced each other in their previous sport, first by decision and then by brutal knockout, and he was confident that if they were to meet again inside the Octagon, the outcome would be the same.

Pereira did succeed in the end, but the journey there wasn't without its bumps.

Adesanya won the first, third, and fourth rounds to enter the final round with a 39-37 advantage on all three scorecards. After being knocked out in the second round, the Nigerian-born, New Zealand-based star controlled the action for the majority of the following 10 minutes. In the first round, he stung Pereira just before the last buzzer.

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The Brazilian, however, got the win in the end and became the champion.

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What is your prediction for UFC 287? Let us know in the comments below.

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