Let’s get this out of the way: Alex Pereira does not deserve to be fighting for a UFC title. He’s 6-1 in mixed martial arts overall and 3-0 in the UFC with wins over Andreas Michailidis, Bruno Silva and Sean Strickland. Those aren’t nothing victories — especially against a championship contender in Strickland — but in almost any other case he would still need at least one or two more wins to get this shot.

Saturday’s main event is based on history. Adesanya, the long reigning middleweight champion, is 75-5 as a kickboxer. Two of those losses, a decision and KO, came at the hands of Pereira. There’s bad blood between both fighters and Adesanya called his Brazilian rival out after his most recent win. This is personal.

“He beat me. He knocked me out, so it is personal,” Adesanya told BT Sport this week. “I’m not trying to get it back. That’s history. It’s always going to be there … I’m just going to go out there and do what I do.”

Pereira doesn’t feel this is more than a regular fight for him.

“We’re talking about MMA. We all know what happened in the last two fights. I forgot about him,” Pereira said. “I’m going to fight you like it was the first time I was fighting in my life.”