Tag: Israel Adesanya

Dricus du Plessis remains the undisputed middleweight champion tonight following his return at UFC 305 — landing a late fourth round rear-naked choke submission win over former two-division titleholder, Israel Adesanya in their title grudge fight in Perth, Australia.

du Plessis, the incumbent undisputed middleweight champion, made his first defense of the divisional crown tonight ‘Downunder’ — having landed the belt back in January of this year with a controversial split decision win over common-foe, Sean Strickland.

And sharing a close opening round with City Kickboxing star, Adesanya in their UFC 305 main event, du Plessis almost setup a rear-naked choke twice in the second frame — with the ex-champion battling his way out during an exciting early scramble.

Striking and plodding forward themselves in the third and fourth rounds, du Plessis would stun Adesanya in the penultimate frame of their headliner at UFC 305 — dropping the Nigerian-Kiwi with winging strikes, before taking his back and locking up a spectacular rear-naked choke to successfully defend his crown for the first time.

Below, catch the highlights from Dricus du Plessis’ win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 305

Israel Adesanya has stoked the flames on his rivalry with incumbent middleweight champion, Dricus du Plessis ahead of their title fight tonight in the main event of UFC 305 – claiming the latter’s family owned slaves. 

Adesanya, a former two-time undisputed middleweight champion, is slated to headline UFC 305 tonight in Perth, taking on promotional-perfect rival, du Plessis over the course of five rounds in a bid to become the first three-time divisional champion in Octagon history. 

And sidelined since he dropped the middleweight crown against former gold holder, Sean Strickland back in September of last year, Israel Adesanya set an unwanted record – becoming the first fighter in the promotion to drop his crown for the second time in a calendar year, in a massive upset decision blemish.

As for du Plessis, the Pretoria native minted himself as the undisputed champion back in January against the above-mentioned, Strickland – turning in a controversial split decision win over the former in Canada.

However, sharing a host of jibes and barbs during their pre-fight press conference this week, du Plessis questioned if Adesanya would be bring his “servants” back with him on his planned tour of Africa – amid revelations from the latter that his family had servants during his childhood to help him bathe and carry out duties around their house.

Israel Adesanya hits back at arch-enemy, Dricus du Plessis

Striking a nerve with the City Kickboxing star who was brought to tears – Adesanya responded to those comments after weighing-in yesterday, accusing du Plessis and his family of “owning slaves”.

“I get the internet and their stupid comments,” Israel Adesanya told the UFC weigh-in show. “He said something about my servants, and that’s rich coming from someone who owned slaves back in the day.”

“For me, if you don’t know about my story don’t speak on it but again, I let that out then, it was good for me to get that out then because it’s because it’s been a while and now I’m back to my form and I’m cold.”