UFC Best Bets For UFC 287

Read on below to find out UFC Best Bets for this weekend’s UFC 287!

Alex Pereira ©  vs Israel Adesayna – Middleweight Title Fight 

Alex Pereira is the current UFC middleweight champion and he will face his toughest test date as he takes on Israel Adesanya at UFC 287. He has only had eight professional fights in his career, and he has already risen to the top of the middleweight division in the biggest mixed martial arts promotion in the world. Regardless of the results of this fight, he is certainly destined for superstardom, and this will not be the last big fight that he is involved in. This is an immediate rematch after Alex Pereira knocked out Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 back in November 2022. Six of his seven victories have come by knock out while the other one has come by decision. The only loss of his professional career has come by submission.

Israel Adesanya will be looking to win back his UFC middleweight title with a victory in this fight and get revenge for his loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 281 back in November. The “style bender” is widely considered one of the best fighters pound for pound in all of mixed martial arts, and he will certainly be looking to knock out Pereira to make up for his knockout loss last time they faced off in the octagon. In 25 career professional fights, he has picked up 23 victories, over half of those have come by knockout. I look for him to win his title back in this fight in that same fashion as well as I have Adesanya knocking out Alex Pereira.

Gilbert Burns  vs Jorge Masvidal – Welterweight  

Gilbert Burns comes into this fight looking to grab wood could potentially be the biggest win of his UFC career against one of the sport’s top stars in Jorge Masvidal. 26 career professional fights, Gilbert Burns comes into this fight having won 21 of them with five losses under his belt as well. This will be his second fight of 2023 after he submitted Neil Magny in the first round back at UFC 283 in January. He will be looking to stay on the right track after losing his only fight of 2022, as he looks to make 2023 a year of redemption and get himself back towards the top of the welterweight rankings.

Jorge Masvidal makes his long-awaited return to the UFC here at UFC 287. He is by far the most experienced fighter on this card as he has had 51 career professional fights, and of those 51 fights he has 36 victories. It has been over one calendar year since his last fight when he was defeated by Colby Covington back at UFC 272 in March 2022. It’ll be interesting to see how he approaches this fight with Gilbert Burns as he comes into this fight on a three fight losing streak and hasn’t picked up a victory since 2019. I don’t look for it to get much better for Jorge Masvidal in this fight as I have Gilbert Burns winning this one by decision.

Rob Font vs Adrian Yanez – Bantamweight

Rob Font comes into this one as an underdog, but it also provides him with a great opportunity to establish himself within the bantamweight rankings as a potential title contender. He has had 25 career professional fights during his time in mixed martial arts, and he has picked up 19 victories in those 25 fights. He is coming off of a two fight losing streak as he has lost his last two fights by decision, and even his last victory over former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt came by decision as well. His last two fights that have ended any stoppage he has won via knockout and those came in 2020 and 2018. So he is certainly capable of going the distance in any fight he participates in.

Adrian Yanez will be looking to grab another victory to add to his 16-3 career record in what will be 20 career professional fights following this one. He also comes into this fight in a similar position as Rob Font, despite being the favorite against Font. A victory could propel him up the bantamweight rankings, and set him up for a potential title shot in the future. He comes into this fight on a nine fight winning streak, and he has never lost inside of the UFC. Five out of his last six fights have ended in a knockout victory for Yanez, and he has never been knocked out himself as all three of his losses have come by decision. I think he gets the decision victory in this one over Font on Saturday night.

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*Odds and spreads correct at time of publication, courtesy of BetMGM.