Israel Adesanya says he’s surprised to see Alex Pereira as the betting underdog for their UFC 281 title fight: “I think we should bet on him this fight”

Israel Adesanya has spoken of the betting odds ahead of his UFC 281 main event against Alex Pereira this weekend.

On Saturday night, Israel Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight title against Alex Pereira.

It will serve as the third combat sports meeting between them, years after their two battles in kickboxing. On both occasions, Pereira came out on top – once via decision and once via knockout.

The next step is for him to claim gold in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Of course, given the overwhelming qualities that Adesanya possesses, that’ll be easier said than done.

In a recent interview, ‘Stylebender’ spoke candidly about the expectations for this bout.

“I like (the pressure) on me in this one. I saw last night, I’m like, ‘Why am I the favorite in this on the betting odds?’ I never check them but I just happened to see something on Instagram and I was like, ‘How the f*ck am I the favorite?’ I feel like we should change that. How do we change that or something, fake an injury? I don’t know. We’ll see. I think we should bet on him this fight. Yeah, we’ll just see what happens.”

Adesanya awaits

“You can see the faces of myself and himself once his hand got raised,” Adesanya said of the fight first. “It was a close fight, sure. But if you’re scoring the fight according to the criteria of kickboxing, I was doing work. I watched the highlights as well, I seen the shots I was hitting him with back then but he was just able to eat them. I was a skinny boy, skinny clown back then. But I can find those same angles on him. My game is a lot different. My striking has always been better suited for MMA. I’ve said that from the jump. I’m just really good at striking that I dominated in kickboxing, but my striking has always been better suited for MMA. Yeah, again. We’ll see.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

Are you excited for Israel Adesanya vs Alex Pereira? Let us know in the comments, BJPENN Nation!