Du Plessis and Adesanya got intense during the first official face off for their UFC 305 title fight on August 17th, with neither man breaking eye contact for over a minute.
The past few days in the UFC have been great if you’re a fan of intense staredowns.
First there was the staredown between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka in the main event of UFC 303, which started the moment both men entered the octagon and lasted nearly five whole minutes. Now we’re happy to report that Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya gave that moment a run for its money at a UFC 305 ticket announcement press conference in Australia.
Tickets for UFC 305 in Perth, Australia go on sale July 5th and we expect them to move quickly considering the hype surrounding the grudge match between middleweight champion Du Plessis and former champ Adesanya. If Aussies didn’t know the two African natives disliked each other, they do now because the first official face off turned into an intense 90 second stare down with both fighters refusing to break eye contact.
Israel and Dricus has an INTENSE face off ahead of #UFC305! pic.twitter.com/t3uzrwF02l
— Submission Radio (@SubmissionRadio) July 3, 2024
“The Last Stylebender” laid out the origin of their beef to the press in attendance.
“We’ve had history, over the years,” Adesanya said. “It’s almost like destiny because we met in Thailand, Tiger Muay Thai back in the day. Had a little little play around, and funny enough, here we are again. It’s like full circle, back where it all started for me. Again, he tried to discredit the Three Kings and say that he’s the real true African champion. And I was just, like, it’s a weird mindset, bro.”
“Like he came in the UFC, I knew who he was a little bit, but I didn’t go, ‘Oh, who the f— is this fake dude coming in?’ I just said, ‘Cool, he’s another African in the UFC.’ But then him discrediting me, Francis Ngannou, and Kamaru Usman, that ticked me off a little bit. So that’s what started this. But again, I’ll finish it.”
“There’s no tension for me,” Du Plessis said about the match-up. “I get into the octagon and I do my job. I do my business. You can be the biggest asshole in the world. You can be the nicest guy in the world. I’m going out there to kill you, and I hope you’re doing the same to me because otherwise, it’s not gonna be a good night for you.”
“As far as discrediting, I never discredited anybody stating fact,” he added. “Where do I reside? What’s my postal code? Where do I train? Where do I live? Where was I born? In South Africa. Still there, still training. I won this belt from South Africa, I didn’t travel anywhere else. That was the only thing that I stated.”
“So I never discredited anybody, but quite frankly, I don’t really care about how it rubbed him the wrong way. I don’t care.”
Based on the intensity of their staredown, it seems to us like both men care quite a bit.
UFC 305 goes down from Perth, Australia on August 17th. Check out the full line-up as it stands now here.