 Luckily for the UFC, their event would have continued regardless with a host of massive fights, including a barn-burner between Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier and a co-main event featuring Carla Esparza defending her strawweight title against former world champion Zhang Weili. There's British interest on the prelims when Molly McCann takes on Erin Blanchfield. Adesanya is the betting favourite heading into tomorrow night despite having been brutally stopped in their last meeting, given that he hasn't lost at){kind=link}
Middleweight champion Adesanya tipped the scales at 185lb on the button early in today’s UFC 281 weigh-ins, but Pereira didn’t show up until much later in the window
Israel Adesanya’s fight with Alex Pereira is official after the challenger made weight just five minutes before the deadline after a gruelling cut from 232lb.
The champion Adesanya arrived on the scales at 185lb early in today’s official weigh-in, but Pereira struggled to get down to 184.6lb after ballooning to well into heavyweight territory as recently as August. He shared a photo to social media showing himself on the scales at 105.6kg, which is just under 233lb, which is more than three stone over the middleweight limit.
New York Commission officials would have allowed him a further two hours to make the weight, but fortunately he was able to get in under the limit to confirm his bout with Adesanya. The meeting is just his eighth MMA fight, but he holds two victories over Adesanya in kick-boxing including a vicious knockout.
Ryan Span and Mike Trizano, both fighting on the prelim card against Dominick Reyes and Seungwoo Choi respectively, missed weight for their fights. Span was 0.6lb over the light-heavyweight limit, while Trizano was 1.6lb over featherweight, meaning both will still fight although they are being fined 20 per cent of their purses.