Israel Adesanya wants a new challenge.
The two-time UFC middleweight champ has beaten several top challengers over the past few years, and with rival Alex Pereira making a move of up to 205 pounds, the way is clear for Adesanya to take on a new name.
At the forefront of that discussion seems to be Dricus Du Plessis, who is 5-0 to start his career in the UFC, with four of those victories via knockout or submission. Making a potential matchup between Adesanya and Du Plessis — No. 1 and No. 8 respectively in the two MMA fighting world rankings — even more convincing is the invocation they make of another African heritage. Du Plessis hails from South Africa, while Adesanya is a Nigerian national who is currently fighting out of New Zealand.
Du Plessis next fights Robert Whitaker at UFC 290 on July 8 – and Adesanya is hoping Du Plessis can pick up the win to set up a match between them.
“I will appear [Du Plessis] He won this fight in the first round, and when he does, I’ll be right there in the cage so he can roll around in September,” Adesanya said at MMA watch. “No bulls***, no ‘I got hurt’, this and that, nope. We’ll fight in Sydney in September. Because Rob is Rob, whatever, I already have a plan for Rob if he’s Rob. But I really, really, really hope it’s DDP Because I will show him who I am.”
Adesanya is targeting September so he and Du Plessis can fight in Sydney at UFC 293. “The Last Stylebender” has competed in Australia several times in his career which is the country where he became the first undisputed middleweight champion in the UFC when he defeated Whitaker at UFC 243 Adesanya later defeated Whittaker again at UFC 271.
The feud between Adesanya and Du Plessis began when Du Plessis claimed he had stronger ties to Africa due to having lived and trained on the continent unlike Adesanya, as well as fellow African-born fighters Francis Nganu and Kamaru Osman, both of whom are currently based in the US, Adesanya has argued against Du Plessis’ claim and reiterated his position on Monday.
I will say this again, Adesanya said. “I’ve never questioned his ethnicity. I’ve never said he’s not African, despite colonialism – we don’t want to go over all that stuff. He’s in Africa, he was born in South Africa, I never doubted that. But the fact that he was acting a female president, “We know who the real African is, I’m breathing African air, ‘all this kind of thing—how are you going to ask me, Frances, and a black Camaro or an African? Who are you and a s***? So I had to put that out there. I want to know him.'”
“I’ll tell you one thing: Have you heard of ‘my predecessor and me’?” ” [sic] If you do “Ancestry and Me” [sic] Ali, I know where you’re coming from. If you do it to him, he will find out where he came from – and I’ll tell you, I won’t say South Africa. … He will tell you where he came from, he will know his true heritage. I know who I am and stand for that no matter where I am in the world. You can take the boy out of Africa, but you can never take Africa out of the man. I know that and I never asked him as an African, so who is he to question me as an African? “
Adesanya insists that his feud with Du Plessis is not personal regardless of the seriousness of the topic under discussion. In fact, he remembers having supported Du Plessis in the past – a past that Adesanya couldn’t help but add to when he brought the matter up.
“Funny enough, we’ve trained together before,” said Adesanya. “I yelled his ass off. He just wrestled ***** me in the first round. … He was nice, he was a cool kid. Even in the UFC, when he came to the UFC, I was really supportive. I was like, ‘Another African in UFC,” I swear you can find this online on my YouTube,” another African in the UFC, that’s cool.” So the fact that he came out and started bragging and asking me, I was like, “Who the hell is this?” So when this happens, I will torture him.”
Even if Du Plessis picks up an upset win over Whitaker, another hurdle in Adesanya’s potential challenge for the middleweight title is the fact that UFC 293 takes place just two months after UFC 290. That would be a quick turnaround for Du Plessis, who isn’t. He doesn’t guarantee escaping his fight with Whitaker unscathed even if he wins.
Adesanya will be watching and doing his part in making the Battle of Du Plessis happen in September.
“It’s going to be the first round, Dricos, manipulate him, in a way, with some magic, some magic,” said Adesanya. “We’re going to make it happen. It’s a tough question, but then again, Player 1, you can make things happen. Really, I’m going to pray for this and make this happen.”