UFC 281 | Pro fighters make their picks for Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira title fight

In the main event of UFC 281, the middleweight title is up for grabs as Israel Adesanya takes on Alex Pereira. Heading into the fight, Adesanya is a -210 favorite while the challenger is a +162 underdog on FanDuel.

Ahead of the fight, BJPENN.com reached out to several pro-fighters to get their prediction for the scrap. The pros slightly lean towards Pereira winning once again by KO as they think Adesanya will fight too emotionally and get caught.

BJPENN.com Fighter Picks Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira:

Renato Moicano, UFC lightweight: Man, that is a hard fight to call. Adesanya has the experience in MMA, but Pereira is super dangerous and powerful. I think it will be a striking battle and I think he can catch Adesanya and will get the KO win.

Max Griffin, UFC welterweight: I got Pereira. Pereira is 2-0 against him and one of them is by knockout and Adesanya fights as a striker, he doesn’t wrestle, and he doesn’t grapple so if they have a kickboxing match I think Pereira knocks him out.

Matt Frevola, UFC lightweight: I’m going with Stylebender. This is a mixed martial arts fight not a kickboxing fight and that will be the difference.

Vanessa Demopoulos, UFC strawweight: I kind of think Pereira is going to win. He has the power and Adesanya is used to fighting smaller guys with the reach advantage but that won’t be the case here.

Cody Brundage, UFC middleweight: I think Adesanya is going to win. I was thinking Pereira knocked him out, he was going to win. But, at that press conference, he told people to go back and watch it, which I did. There were a couple of times that Adesanya hurt Pereira badly and he was winning both fights. He is also better at MMA than Pereira. 

Mario Bautista, UFC bantamweight: That one is going to be. I’m going to go with Pereira, I think he’ll be in Izzy’s head and fighting emotionally is never good.

Victor Henry, UFC bantamweight: I think Adesanya is going to take that. The only reason Pereira did so well against Strickland was that there was zero threat of a takedown. Even if Adesanya fakes a takedown it will open a lot more of his striking and make Pereira think about that as well. That will throw off Pereira and lead to Adesanya to get the win.

Jose Johnson, UFC bantamweight: Both have beautiful styles and they have history. But, I think Pereira gets it done. There is a huge chip on Adesanya’s shoulder as this KO loss has hung over him and I think he’s going to come out with too much emotion and get caught.

Vince Morales, UFC bantamweight: I’m going with Adesanya and I think he silences a lot of critics.

Fernie Garcia, UFC bantamweight: I got Adesanya, I’m going to go with his experience in MMA.

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Fighters picking Israel Adesanya: Matt Frevola, Cody Brundage, Victor Henry, Vince Morales, Fernie Garcia

Fighters picking Alex Pereira: Renato Moicano, Max Griffin, Vanessa Demopoulos, Mario Bautista, Jose Johnson

Who do you think will win at UFC 281, Israel Adesanya or Alex Pereira?