Heading into his grudge match title defense against Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 281 on Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Israel Adesanya was an outlier among current UFC champions. His five successful title defenses heading into the bout with Pereira were the most among UFC men and were second only to women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko's seven in the UFC.
Before Pereira, badly behind on the scorecards in his final round knocked out of Adesanya, current UFC champions to that point in their most recent reigns had 21 successful defenses.