Key takeaways
Alex Pereira beat Israel Adesanya by knockout at 2:01 of round five in the main event of UFC 281 at the Madison Square Garden in New York City. Israel Adesanya had come in as the division's No. 9. In the co-main event, Zhang Weili beat Carla Esparza by submission at 1:05 of round two at women's strawweight.
Across the 14 bouts that produced a result, seven ended by knockout, four by submission and three on the judges' scorecards — eleven stoppages in 14 fights. Every decision was unanimous: not one result divided the judges.
The quickest finish belonged to Ryan Spann, who stopped Dominick Reyes at 1:20 of round one, and seven of the eleven finishes came inside the opening round. The longest was Alex Pereira's knockout of Israel Adesanya, 22 minutes and 1 seconds in. End to end, the 14 fights filled one hour and 56 minutes of cage time.
The main card finished at the higher rate: five of five, against six of the nine below it. Renato Moicano (submission, round one), Ryan Spann (knockout, round one) and Erin Blanchfield (submission, round one) all closed before the judges were needed.
Eight ranked fighters appeared, and three of them were in the top two bouts, among them champion Carlos Ulberg.
Seven weight classes were used, lightweight most often with four bouts.
