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.”

Related

Sean Strickland expects Israel Adesanya to ‘run, dance, and be a little b*tch’ in UFC 287 rematch vs. Alex Pereira

Israel Adesanya: ‘I’ve put the pressure on myself’ for Alex Pereira rematch at UFC 287

UFC champ Israel Adesanya: I still want Jon Jones fight, but ‘I don’t need it’ for my legacy

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.

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie