Israel Adesanya announced on his X account that he will finally face off against the middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis, at UFC 305.
Adesanya and Du Plessis looked like they were on an all but certain collision course to fight one another whilst Adesanya was champion. But after Adesanya’s upset loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293, the pair would have to wait a little longer to face one another. If Adesanya had beaten Strickland, the matchup with Du Plessis would have been next up. With Strickland taking home the win, he would instead look to make his first title defence against Du Plessis.
Du Plessis would realise his dreams of becoming a UFC champion when he defeated Sean Strickland via split decision at UFC 297. After his win, Du Plessis would call out “Stylebender” to finally settle their differences.
Israel Adesanya and Du Plessis’ History
Adesanya and Du Plessis have had ongoing beef with one another ever since Du Plessis claimed that he intended to become the first legitimate African UFC champion. Du Plessis stated in an interview for UFC 285:
“Did those belts ever go to Africa? As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’m going to take a belt to Africa. I’m the African fighter in the UFC. Myself and Cameron (Saaiman), we breathe African air. We wake up in Africa every day. We train in Africa, we’re African born, we’re African raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa – that’s an African champion, and that’s who I’ll be.“
MMA Junkie
This comment by Du Plessis did not sit well with fellow UFC fighters such as Adesanya and Kamaru Usman. Usman responded by saying:
“The one thing he’s failing to realize is just because I go to China, and my parents are in China, and I’m raised in China, that doesn’t make me more Chinese than people from China. Just because you went over to South Africa and you were raised there, that doesn’t make you African.“
Sportskeeda
This comment by Du Plessis has made the fight with Israel Adesanya even more heated as the words of the champion did not sit well with Adesanya. Adesanya even went as far as to say “he would drag (Du Plessis’) carcass around South Africa.” The rivalry has gone from one that was strictly from a competitive standpoint. To now which has become quite personal, and the pair seem to have a disdain for one another.
UFC 300 Fight Denied
It has been confirmed that Du Plessis turned down a potential fight with Israel Adesanya at UFC 300 as he did not believe that he had enough time to prepare for the fight. Du Plessis confirmed this on the Shadow Banned Podcast:
“I was in a moon boot,” Du Plessis said. “I wasn’t able to train, because with a broken foot, it’s stationary. I couldn’t train. So now you want me to have a six-week camp to fight at UFC 300. [Against] one of the best people to ever do it. I don’t think people understand what it would mean to fight at 300, be the main event. That’s life-changing s***.”
The Shadow Banned Podcast
After all the build-up and drama between the two, they will finally get to see who the better man is at UFC 305.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
