This Saturday, in the main event of UFC 287 in Miami, Israel Adesanya will challenge Alex Pereira for the promotion's middleweight belt.

The Nigerian-New Zealander, a former champion, will enter the Octagon as a slight betting favorite, according to DraftKings. However, this will be his fourth fight with the Brazilian across kickboxing and MMA competition, and he has lost every time they've met—twice by knockout.

Their first meeting occurred in the kickboxing ring in 2016, when Pereira defeated Adesanya by unanimous decision. Their second occurred a year later, also under kickboxing rules, when Pereira survived some adversity to score a highlight-reel knockout win.

Their most recent meeting—and their lone MMA clash—went down at UFC 281 last November, when Pereira corrected a widening deficit on the scorecards with a dramatic fifth-round knockout, ending Adesanya's five-fight reign as middleweight king in the process.

History tells us that Pereira has Adesanya's number and is the former champion's superior in kickboxing and MMA.

However, Adesanya has the skills to beat the Brazilian. Keep scrolling for a few ways the former champ can reclaim his throne this weekend.

Make It Quick

The prevailing opinion ahead of Adesanya and Pereira's first MMA clash was that the fight would be most dangerous for the former in the early rounds. Pereira has explosive knockout power—something Adesanya knows well—and knockout power is always most potent early on in fights. It made sense that people saw things that way.

However, Adesanya very nearly flipped the script in that fight, as he stung and almost finished Pereira with punches in the waning seconds of the first round. It was a clear reminder that, despite the fact that the former champion generally prefers careful counter-striking over head-hunting, he does possess some pretty significant stopping power of his own.

That oft-forgotten power could be his key to victory this Saturday.

The MMA world once again seems to think that Pereira's best chances of winning are early in the fight and that Adesanya is more likely to finish things later in the fight or win by decision.

The former champ could catch a lot of people by surprise if he comes out aggressive and looks to do fight-ending damage early. He might even surprise Pereira.

Make it a Chess Match

We know that Alex Pereira is very dangerous early on in his fights, when his ferocious knockout power is uninhibited by fatigue. There is also reason to question how his cardio will hold up in a long, taxing war, as his propensity for quick KOs has mostly precluded him from that kind of fight.

All of that suggests that it is in Adesanya's best interests to exercise extreme caution early in this fight and gradually take control with his slick striking as the action progresses. This strategy worked well for him last year.

While he nearly finished Pereira in Round 1, he controlled most of the following rounds with a careful, tactical approach to MMA striking. In fact, had Pereira not landed a bomb in Round 5, the former champ most likely would have retained his title via unanimous decision. If he employs a similar game plan at UFC 287—which seems likely—he can definitely take control of this fight and score a late stoppage or win a decision.

All he needs to do is avoid getting knocked out by one of the scariest strikers in MMA for 25 minutes. It won't be easy—a bit like sprinting across an eight-lane highway without getting hit by a car—but it's possible.

Mix the Martial Arts

As former kickboxers, neither Adesanya nor Pereira is known for their grappling. Yet ahead of their UFC 281 fight, most people believed Adesanya, who has been competing in MMA for much longer than his rival, would have a solid edge in the grappling department to fall back on.

That theory proved accurate...kind of.

Adesanya only succeeded on one of four takedown attempts, but he was still able to rack up more than six minutes of control time on the canvas—a big part of the reason he seemed to be headed toward a decision win. It's worth noting that Pereira also succeeded on his lone takedown attempt of the fight, but the Brazilian did seem to be out of his depth on the mat—even against a fellow striker.

Based on that, Adesanya fans are likely hoping he's been hard at work on his wrestling and jiu jitsu in the time since he lost the title, and that takedowns and submission attempts will factor heavily into his game plan for Saturday.

Of course, it's more than likely that Pereira has also been patching up the holes in his ground game, so even if Adesanya plays the part of grappler this time around, the takedowns will probably be even more difficult to attain than they were last time.

Still, it is definitely in the former champion's best interests to remind his three-time foil that they are fighting under MMA rules—not in the kickboxing ring—and use every tool available.