Two titles will be on the line this weekend at UFC 281. Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will defend his belt in the main event against former kickboxing rival and rising UFC star Alex Pereira, and Carla Esparza will defend the women's strawweight title against former champ Zhang Weili in the co-main event at Madison Square Garden in New York (ESPN+ PPV at 10 p.m. ET, with prelims on ESPNEWS/ESPN+ at 8 p.m.).
Adesanya (23-1), ESPN's No. 2 on ESPN's men's pound-for-pound rankings, will go for his seventh consecutive middleweight title defense. Pereira (6-1), No. 7 in ESPN's divisional rankings, is on a three-fight win streak including a first-round knockout over Sean Strickland in July. Pereira has previously defeated Adesanya twice in kickboxing and remains the only man who has knocked Adesanya out.
Esparza (19-6), No. 6 in ESPN's women's pound-for-pound rankings, is a two-time UFC women's strawweight champion and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak. Most recently she claimed a split decision win over Rose Namajunas in May to reclaim the title. Weili (22-3), who sits ahead of Esparza in the pound-for-pound rankings at No. 4, enters the fight following a second-round knockout of Joanna Jedrzejczyk in June.
Former UFC fighter and current ESPN MMA analyst Megan Anderson breaks down both title fights. And Brett Okamoto spoke to Fortis MMA coach Sayif Saud to get his perspective on the matchups in the main event and co-main event and ESPN's betting experts Ian Parker and Reed Kuhn add their insights and analysis on fights they like on the card as well.
Editor's note: Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
