Israel Adesanya is happy for Dricus du Plessis, but he still has his sights set on the new UFC middleweight champion.
Du Plessis claimed that title this past Saturday at UFC 297 in Toronto after winning a narrow split decision over Sean Strickland. The back-and-forth fight had the Scotiabank Arena crowd entranced and Adesanya was also watching closely at home.
In a reaction video posted to YouTube, Adesanya explained why he felt du Plessis did enough to win the fight, and also why the two sill have a score to settle.
“The main event, it was nice to watch,” Adesanya said. “I thought Dricus, I thought he would use his wrestling more in the middle of the rounds, but he did use it at the end, which was smart of him to steal the rounds. I thought maybe, my ‘guesstimate’ on watching this, [rounds] 3, 4, 5 he took. Now he is the fourth African champion in UFC history, so congrats to you my African brother Dricus du Plessis.”
“Legit I’m happy for him, I actually like his story,” Adesanya added. “But he still did what he did and I’m still going to test that ass.”
Adesanya and du Plessis have been embroiled in a heated rivalry that began while Adesanya still held the UFC middleweight title. Du Plessis, who hails from South Africa, ruffled Adesanya’s feathers when he suggested that he is a more authentic than Adesanya, who was born in Nigeria but is based in New Zealand.
Following du Plessis’ win at UFC 297, Adesanya said on social media that they are ‘destined’ to fight.
Adesanya lost his title to Strickland at UFC 293 this past September. In the video above, Adesanya and his friends can be seen having a laugh at the now-former champion’s expense.
