The budding rivalry between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya reached a boiling point following the South African’s win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 last summer.
Tensions rose in that moment when Adesanya entered the Octagon to face du Plessis, setting the stage for a future title fight between the two middleweight fighters. Du Plessis had earned Adesanya’s ire by calling himself “UFC’s African fighter” at the 2023 media day event, and that anger was on display when the Nigerian-born New Zealander addressed du Plessis inside the cage that night.
The highly anticipated showdown between Adesanya and du Plessis has been a long time coming, but after more than a year, the two will finally meet on Saturday in the main event of UFC 305 at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. But now their positions have been reversed, with du Plessis the champion and Adesanya the challenger. In an interview with Fox Sports Australia, du Plessis said Adesanya has been playing down more while promoting his championship fight than he was after UFC 290.
“What was interesting was, before the press conference, I was waiting to see what kind of energy Adesanya would bring because I was going to match it,” du Plessis said. “I was wondering if he would come out with a new passion or a different strategy, but he turned out exactly how I expected him to. After our last fight inside the Octagon, he acted like a fool, and I think he took a step back and said, ‘I can’t do that.’ It was a very emotional reaction and it was a big loss for him and he can’t afford to do that again.”
Du Plessis argues that even if Adesanya had tried to get heated during the press conference, it wouldn’t have had much of an impact.
UFC 305: du Plessis vs. Adesanya airs Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Order now! “I control my actions, so I don’t behave emotionally,” he said. So, nothing he says will upset or anger me. When I start behaving emotionally like that, it’s a loss.”
Du Plessis also did not retract his controversial remarks.
“If I could do my time over again, would I have said it differently? No,” du Plessis said. “I would have done exactly the same, because it’s the truth. Some people have misconstrued that I said it to take away or discredit, but that’s not the case at all. It’s all about my own goal, which is to become Africa’s first reigning champion. Would he have got it wrong?
[don’t know]”But if you understand English, you’ll know that what I said was very specific. Maybe he was trying to extract something that wasn’t there, but that’s not my concern.”
