Jon Jones picks Alex Pereira to beat Israel Adesanya again at UFC 287 – but who is he rooting for?

LAS VEGAS – Jon Jones thinks Alex Pereira has Israel Adesanya figured out.

Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) notched his third win over Adesanya (23-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) when he dethroned him to become middleweight champion this past November at UFC 281. Prior to that, “Poatan” beat Adesanya twice in kickboxing, including once by knockout.

Although Pereira had to rally in two of those wins before he stopped Adesanya, Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) thinks he’ll come out on top again when he rematches “The Stylebender” in the UFC 287 main event April 8 in Miami.

“I believe Pereira is going to win again,” Jones told reporters at the UFC 285 media day on Wednesday. “There’s some athletes that just have other athletes’ number. I see he works hard and I’m rooting for him. I believe he’s going to do it again.”

Jones’ pick may not come as a surprise, given he and Adesanya haven’t seen eye-to-eye over the years and have traded barbs on numerous occasions and expressed interest in a superfight.

Jones, the former light heavyweight king, returns after a layoff of more than three years in Saturday’s UFC 285 headliner to take on Ciryl Gane (11-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for the vacant heavyweight belt at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 287.