At the end of his rivalry with Alex Pereira, UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya seems to have found himself in yet another feud that could turn out to be as riveting as the one he shared with the Brazilian.
MMA fans will be aware of the intense back-and-forth that has gone on between ‘The Last Stylebender’ and 29-year-old middleweight Dricus du Plessis, which has got quite a few of us buzzing as we speak of it right now.
It all started out as a statement from du Plessis, claiming that despite Adesanya and former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman having won UFC gold, it was never really done as true representatives of the continent of Africa. The middleweight then went on to state that instead of any other fighters, he was a better representation of the continent. This naturally elicited a response from Adesanya, who much recently came out with a rather grim warning for the 29-year-old. Responding to this, du Plessis, in a fresh tweet, also fired back at the middleweight champ with a strong statement of his own.
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Dricus Du Plessis responds to Israel Adesanya’s statement
Responding to Adesanya’s post-fight interview, where he refused to take the name of du Plessis and had made quite a chilling statement for the South African, ‘Stillknocks’ sent out a strong statement on Twitter.
Sharing an image of himself with the South African flag, the 29-year-old jibed back at the middleweight champ, once again showing his bond with his country and the continent.
“So you won’t say my name, that’s smart you better not. I don’t need your airtime at all, I have my whole continent of AFRICA behind me. Go enjoy your very spectacular victory at home in New Zealand. We are Africa we fear nothing.” Read the Tweet.
So you won’t say my name, that’s smart you better not.
I don’t need your airtime at all, I have my whole continent of AFRICA behind me.
Go enjoy your very spectacular victory at home in New Zealand .
We are Africa we fear nothing.#stillknocks #greenandgold🇿🇦 #proudlyafrican pic.twitter.com/QxpPIuF2Gn— Dricus Du Plessis (@dricusduplessis) April 10, 2023
With this tweet, du Plessis might have just got the ball rolling for a fight with Adesanya in the future. Considering the champ’s remarks during the post-fight conference, there is no doubt that if the 29-year-old continued to grab a few more wins, he might eventually find himself facing the champ.
‘The Last Stylebender’ had also expressed his desire to one day “whoop his *ss” during the post-fight interview at UFC 287.
“I wanna whoop his *ss so bad. I want to do it in South Africa or Nigeria. He has to do some work. He has got to do something, show me something, so I can whoop that *ss and I can show you history”.
But it was Adesanya’s next statement that came out as a chilling warning for du Plessis.
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“If he does work and I pray to God he keeps winning. I will gladly drag his carcass across South Africa,” he had said.
Ultimately, there’s no doubt that the strong sentiment involved could potentially make this one of the biggest rivalries to be set up in the sport. The backdrop and the storyline all add up perfectly for a blockbuster matchup, and maybe down the line it could even turn out to be the first event to go down in Africa.
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What do you think of this feud between Adesanya and du Plessis? Let us know in the comments section below.
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