- Israel Adesanya’s betting odds against Alex Pereira have gotten longer since going live last month.
- Adesanya opened at -200 odds but his current mean odds are now just at -167.
- The UFC announced last Saturday that Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight title against Pereira at UFC 281 on November 12th at the Madison Square Garden.
The odds for the Israel Adesanya vs Alex Pereira UFC bout are much tighter now that the fight has been made officially.
On Saturday, the UFC announced that Adesanya will defend the UFC middleweight title against his kickboxing nemesis at UFC 281 on November 2, 2022, at the Madison Square Garden in New York:
Israel Adesanya is set to defend his middleweight title against Alex Pereira at #UFC281 in MSG 🗽 pic.twitter.com/9bOC6AxT2A
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 5, 2022
As expected, the no. 3 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC opened as the odds-on favorite to win that bout. But since opening, Adesanya’s odds have faltered with sports bettors going with the underdog in the early betting action.
Early Bettors Going With Pereira
ODDS MOVEMENT ALERT:
Adesanya -160
Pereira +14063% of the early bettors on the dog https://t.co/QwdTkUt9uq
— Dave Mason (@DaveMasonBOL) July 3, 2022
At BetOnline, Adesanya opened at -180 odds with Pereira coming back at +150. The odds quickly moved to -160 for the Stylebender and +140 for Poatan. According to the said online sportsbook, 63% of the early bets were wagered on Pereira, causing them to shorten his odds just very shortly after opening them.
Bodog opened Adsanya at -175 and Pereira at +135 after the bout was made official on Saturday. Adesanya’s odds are even longer at the FanDuel Sportsbook at -166 with Pereira listed at +140 there. Izzy is also at -165 via DraftKings Sportsbook with the Brazilian at +140 odds. Meanwhile, Betway currently has the longest odds for Adesanya at -163. Pereira is at his shortest odds there at +130.
Meanwhile, MMA odds website Betfightodds which compiles the betting odds for MMA bouts from opening to closing lines listed Adesanya as the -200 favorite and Pereira as the +170 bottom dog when the lines first opened. The said website says that Adesanya’s mead odds are now at -167 which is 21% longer than the opening odds. Meanwhile, Pereira’s mean odds are now at +139 which is 18% better than when it opened.
Alex Pereira Knocks Out Israel Adesanya
Alex Pereira knocks out Israel Adesanya
(Brazil, 2017) 📸 Joao Alves pic.twitter.com/EGx8XTGIbK
— Fight Pics That Go Hard (@fightpicsgohard) July 28, 2022
It’s interesting why early bettors are picking the 35-year-old Brazilian kickboxing superstar with three UFC wins over the current UFC middleweight champion who is 13-1 inside the Octagon and who is an unbeaten 12-0 in 185-pound fights. Adesanya has opened at odds shorter than -200 since becoming champion and he ended up knocking out both Paulo Costa and Robert Whitaker in those bouts. But then again, Alex Pereira is 2-0 against Israel Adesanya, although both bouts were in kickboxing, not MMA.
Pereira doesn’t just own two wins over Israel Adesanya, he is the only fighter to knock out the Last Stylebender, doing so in their second bout. And the Brazilian didn’t just knock out Adesanya, he literally put him to sleep at Glory Heroes 7 way back in March 2017 in Brazil:
Don’t forget Alex Pereira is the only person to ever KO Israel Adesanya 😤pic.twitter.com/jYCuPl83Vv
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) July 3, 2022
That KO was over five years ago and happened in a kickboxing fight. However, if you watch closely, Pereira knocked out Adesanya with the same left hook punch that he used to put Sean Strickland to sleep in his last fight at UFC 276. It was at that same event that Adesanya successfully defended the UFC middleweight title for the 5th straight time. The Stylebender said before the event that he wanted Pereira next if they both won their bouts that night. The stars have aligned.
