The title revenge of the middleweights was officially announced by the representatives of the organization.
Last November at UFC 281 in New York, Alex Pereira scored his fourth straight win in the organization, finishing with a fifth-round technical knockout of Israel Adesanyu and taking away his championship belt. Prior to this, the Brazilian twice defeated the Nigerian in fights according to the rules of kickboxing, once sending him to a deaf knockout.
Before losing yet again to Pereira, Israel Adesanya made five successful defenses of the championship belt, and also made an unsuccessful foray into light heavyweight, in March 2021 losing by unanimous decision to Jan Blachowicz, who at that time owned the UFC title in this weight category.
The second big event of UFC 287 will be a welterweight bout between Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal. Also announced were Kevin Holland vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio, Rob Font vs. Adrian Janiz, and Raul Rosas Junior vs. Christian Rodriguez.