Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya have fought just once in the octagon, but they’ve tangled on three different occasions.
So far, Pereira is up 3-0, but Adesanya gets a chance to put one on the board and win back the belt he lost in the fifth round when they met at UFC 281.
In the cold open for UFC 287, actor and regular pay-per-view narrator Ron Perlman sets the scene for the rivalry between Pereira, the UFC middleweight champion, and ex-kingpin Adesanya. Included in their history are the kickboxing fights that put Pereira up and gave him a fast route to the UFC title, which he expertly capitalized on.
On Saturday, Pereira attempts his first title defense against Adesanya in the headliner of Saturday’s pay-per-view event, which puts the octagon back in Miami at Kaseya Center.
Also on tap for the ESPN+ pay-per-view is a welterweight meeting between multi-time title challengers Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Burns.
You can watch the full cold open for UFC 287 in the video above, which was released by UFC President Dana White.