Israel Adesanya has not stopped taking jibes at Dricus Du Plessis and he again ignited the fire with a new post on X. The rivals who are going to fight do not like each other at all, even when both of them have their roots in Africa. The major crux of the matter is one question that the fighters are throwing at each other. DDP accused Adesanya of not being a ‘real African’ fighter and asked him this question of whether he considers himself to be a real African champ. ‘Stillknocks’ claimed that no other UFC champion from Africa had stayed in the home country and trained like him and thus he was the real African UFC champion.

This enraged Adesanya, who also originally belonged to Nigeria. The feud is still going on and now it has escalated more than people anticipated. Recently, DDP decided to drag a controversy that happened with Adesanya’s pet dog and this might turn out to be serious.

Dricus Du Plessis mentions Israel Adesanya’s pet

A recent upload on Instagram by Full Send MMA showed an interviewer asking DDP if he was aware of his opponent’s new post on X. Du Plessis was surprised and said that he had not seen it and then the host decided to show the post. The host read out the post, which had the picture of the duo side by side. He said, “Israel Adesanya ok, he says, he says good morning, everyone except DDP. So, you’re telling me you are the real African champion? and then he kind of points at your cro**”

That is when ‘Stillknocks’ decided to take a jibe at ‘The Last Stylebender’ and said, “Oh wow ok well, woof woof.” This remark is not so simple because it is rooted in a past controversy that happened with his opponent’s pet dog. The thing is, during UFC 293, when Adesanya was fighting Sean Strickland, the latter decided to take shots at his opponent, referencing a video of his questionable behavior with his pet.

When he was doing an open workout even, Strickland had said, “Somebody needs to call PETA after what Izzy does with his dog…” There were many videos on X of Adesanya cuddling with his pet dog. However, ‘Tarzan’ thought that some gestures were contentious. The Nigerian-New Zealander was slammed for his behavior and even fans called him out. Now the controversy has subsided, but the rift between DDP and Izzy is still simmering.

Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis fight about who is the ‘real African’

DDP might have insinuated the feud about the ‘real African’ fighter, but he was also quick to say that he was not questioning any other champions who came from Africa. He wanted to say that since he still lived and trained in Africa which none of the other African champs do, he was a ‘real’ fighter from Africa so to speak. “And taking that back would make no sense because that’s facts, not taking away any of their [the other African champions’] heritage. I’m not saying they are not African, not at all, but they don’t reside in Africa and that’s facts. They didn’t train in Africa, they didn’t get their expertise of fighting in Africa, and that’s where I get mine. My coaches, my teammates, everybody is African,” he added.

Israel Adesanya, however, does not agree with this, as the Nigerian claimed that his opponent was behaving like a privileged South African. He stated that Du Plessis did not have to flee the country like Adesanya claimed to have done. “Dricus is a b**** for what he’s saying… People like… myself who were forced to flee our own country because of a better opportunity, [Du Plessis] will never understand that because he lives behind the f****** gates of his privileged life in South Africa,” Izzy said.

This might be contradictory, as, according to rumors, Adesanya had a lot of luxuries and money growing up. He even had staff members and servants to help him when he was younger. His parents had moved to New Zealand when he was 10 because of better educational opportunities. Either way, it is clear that the duo has a personal rift leading up to UFC 305, and it is just escalating more.

What are your thoughts on this back-and-forth fight outside the octagon? Tell us in the comments below.