Dricus du Plessis has claimed former two-time middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya should likely have called time on his career in mixed martial arts following his knockout loss to Alex Pereira – claiming he was aware of the City Kickboxing star’s intentions to end his career.
du Plessis, the current undisputed middleweight champion, returns to the Octagon next month in the main event of UFC 305, taking on the above-mentioned, Adesanya in a title showdown in Perth, Australia.
Winning the undisputed crown at UFC 297 back in January of this year in a trip to Canada, du Plessis turned in a close, controversial split decision win over Sean Strickland – improving his unbeaten promotional record to 7-0.
For Adesanya, the former two-time middleweight titleholder has been sidelined since September of last year, himself suffering a one-sided unanimous decision loss to the previously mentioned, Strickland – in one of the biggest upset defeats in Octagon antiquity,
And sharing the stage earlier this month as part of a tense pre-fight press conference ahead of their UFC 305 clash, du Plessis and Adesanya shared some notable trash talk, with the South African poking fun at the former champion’s pet dog.
Dricus du Plessis claims Israel Adesanya should have retired last year
Furthermore, in the time since, du Plessis has boldly proclaimed that he knew Adesanya was set to call time on his career in the sport – and insisted he likely should have already.
“He (Israel Adesanya) knows it and the world knows it, he’s done great things in this sport – when it comes to as big as he’s going to get, he has been as big as he’s going to get in this sport,” Dricus du Plessis told Hello Sport.
“When it comes to the title defenses, the winning streaks, that will never come again because he doesn’t have the time, so I think his biggest achievement for him personally was beating Alex Pereira. He had this nemesis who’s beaten him multiple times and after that fight, he was ready to call it quits – that’s what I saw in his eyes as well.”
Who do you think wins next month at UFC 305: Dricus du Plessis or Israel Adesanya?