Israel Adesanya Finally Overcoming His Biggest Demon Brings Record Profits For UFC

The UFC maintains its standing as the biggest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion in the world with an extremely successful UFC 287 this past Saturday, April 8 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.

While it marked the company's second-ever event in the city since UFC 42 in April 2003, UFC 287 also served as a high-point for the company's financial books.

According to information acquired by the International Business Times, the UFC recorded a gate revenue of $11.9 million–making it the sixth-highest grossing event in the company's history and surpassing its Madison Square Garden gate of $11.5 million.

The reason for it reaching such astronomical numbers in Miami is mainly for one thing: the rematch between Israel Adesanya and reigning middleweight champion Alex Pereira.

Combat sports fans would remember well that their UFC 281 clash in November 2022 did not work in the favor of the then-champion Adesanya as he faced Pereira for the third time in their fighting careers–the first under MMA rules.

Pereira came out on top of Adesanya twice during their kickboxing days in 2016 and 2017, with the Brazilian taking home the win via unanimous decision and knockout–the latter being Adesanya's first-ever loss by that method.

"Poatan" would go on to again knockout Adesanya at UFC 281 to claim the middleweight title, forcing Adesanya to have a personal record of 0-3 against Pereira.

At UFC 287, Adesanya challenged his Brazilian rival for the middleweight title that he lost in devastating fashion, while Pereira sought to continue being the demon in his dreams while finally putting an end to his rivalry with the Nigeran–New Zealander.

Much like their previous encounters, Adesanya was getting pummeled with leg kicks throughout the first and second rounds, with things looking bleak for "The Last Stylebender" and his hopes of overcoming Pereira.

As he was getting backed up against the cage, Adesanya uncorked a short left hand that surprised Pereira and quickly followed it up with a haymaker of a right hand that stunned the Brazilian.

Adesanya reloaded his right hand and fired off another big one–this time sending Pereira to the canvas and landing a hammer fist before referee Dan Miragliotta called off the bout.

Immediately after banishing Pereira to the shadow realm, Adesanya used Pereira's signature bow-and-arrow celebration to put an exclamation point at the moment.

The win made Adesanya the first and only

For his efforts inside the cage, Adesanya earned Performance of the Night honors alongside Rob Font, who TKO'd Adrian Yanez earlier in the night.

Other recipients of the $50,000 performance bonus were Chris Curtis and Kelvin Gastelum in the final fight of the preliminary bouts, with the latter taking home the dub by unanimous decision in a much-needed victory as he had lost five of his six previous bouts.

With UFC president Dana White mentioning during the pre-event press conference that UFC 287 is "the biggest gate outside of Las Vegas and outside [Madison Square] Garden" and him declaring that the organization is "definitely" returning to Miami, it would not be all that surprising for them to set new records the next time around.