Israel Adesanya loses UFC title in Wild fight against Alex Pereira

UFC 281 took place inside a packed Madison Square Garden Arena as fans were treated to a back and forth battle between Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya and Brazilian KO artist Alex Pereira. Ahead on the scorecard, Adesanya eventually got hit with the big shots of Pereira around the 2 minute mark of the 5th and final round forcing referee Marc Goodard to put a stop to the action.

In only his 8th professional MMA fight Poatan is now UFC Champion with a 4-0 record inside of the promotion.  Pereira who owned 2 Kickboxing victories over Israel Adesanya already had one win by KO before stepping into the 3rd match and the first under MMA rules.

Co main event saw Carla Esparza lose her world championship to Weili Zhang and Dustin Poirier submitting Michael Chandler in the third and final round. Frankie Edgar was given no favors by the UFC in his send off bout and lost by devastating KO knee to Chris Gutierrez who has now only lost 1 fight in his last 12 bouts and is riding a 4 fight win streak. Dan Hooker and Carlos Ulberg picked up wins for City Kickboxing while Juilo Arce lost a decision having split wins and loses over his past 7 bouts.