It’s Hard To Make Weight

Move over Ray Sadeghi, there’s a new “Jizzy” in town.

Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is gearing up for his 185-pound title defense against longtime kickboxing rival Alex Pereira in the UFC 281 pay-per-view (PPV) main event, scheduled for this Sat. night (Nov. 12, 2022) inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.

If Adesanya calls you during his weight cut, don’t answer.

“I busted a nut to make weight,” Adesanya told Taylor Rooks about the craziest thing he ever did to hit his mark. “At the time I was young and I was on that whole no [release] before a fight — before I knew it was a myth — and yeah … a few grams came off. A hundred grams. I made weight. I was younger back then, like 21, 22, I didn’t know what I was doing with weight cutting. Yeah, that was something.”

In unrelated news, UFC 281 is now sponsored by Kleenex.

Adesanya, 33, has never missed weight in his UFC career and barely cracked 200 pounds when he jumped to light heavyweight to battle Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. His last official weight was 183.5 pounds for his Jared Cannonier title defense at UFC 276, a far cry from what Pereira endures to make weight.

The UFC 281 early weigh ins take place this Friday (Nov. 11) at 9 a.m. ET.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 281 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPN+/ESPNews at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 281: “Adesanya vs. Pereira” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the complete UFC 281 fight card and PPV line up click here.