“I Did Manhandle Him”: Israel Adesanya’s Training Claims From 2014 Refuted Bluntly by Dricus du Plessis Days After UFC Champ’s Bold Statement on Bitter Rival

Dricus du Plessis is the UFC’s surging middleweight. The 29-year-old is in a great position in his fighting career. Currently, he is getting ready to lock horns against former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. If he wins against ‘The Reaper’, a title shot against the current UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, awaits him. With a whopping record of 19 victories and just two losses, the African fighter is confident about destroying any of his opponents.

Even before an actual fight, both Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis had established a rivalry between the two. Their rivalry began when Dricus du Plessis questioned Adesanya’s African heritage. According to him, Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou can’t be true Africans as none of them brought their belts to Africa, nor do they live or train in Africa. The debate continues to stay alive between ‘Stillknocks’ and ‘Stylebender’. However, now they are having disagreements on one more issue. It’s about who beat who in their training session back in Thailand in 2014.

Dricus du Plessis disagreed with Israel Adesanya

While Israel Adesanya was talking in an interview with MMA Fighting, he mentioned training with du Plessis in Thailand. Back then, ‘Stillknocks’ was just nineteen years old. According to Adesanya, during the grappling sessions, it was du Plessis who completely dominated him, but when it came to striking, it was ‘Stylebender’ who dominated. In an interview with The Schmo ‘Stillknocks’ was asked about his side of the story, and that’s when he said, “We trained in Thailand together. I think I was 19 years old at the time. He had quite a record in MMA already back then. I was 3 and 0 I think. When we trained together but you know he said yeah, I beat him in the grappling exchanges. He’s 100 correct in that.”

‘Stillknocks’ added, “I did manhandle him and you know grappling and wrestling exchanges but we did not do a single round of striking together not one and I mean that was his way of saving himself saying ‘No but I beat him in the striking.’ We never did striking together, not one round. When we sport, we did it. We grappled, and we wrestled. We never did one single round of striking together, not as far as I know, and that’s something you would remember.” Both Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis had different versions of the same story.

READ MORE: “He Knew About Me”: As Dricus Du Plessis’ African Heritage Beef With Israel Adesanya Gains Traction, Another UFC Fighter From Zimbabwe Weighs in on the Issue

 In the same interview, Dricus du Plessis also mentioned his possible fight against Israel Adesanya for the middleweight belt. ‘Stylebender’ has already claimed that he wants ‘Stillknocks’ to win at UFC 290 as he wants to take revenge. Now, Dricus du Plessis has warned the UFC middleweight champion about his wishes. He is highly confident about winning against Robert Whittaker and also against Adesanya. What are your thoughts? Who do you think will win between Dricus du Plessis and Robert Whittaker at UFC 290?

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