As Dana White confirmed the bout between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland at the DWCS season 8 press conference, the fighting community began to speculate how the fight would proceed. Needless to say, former 2-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya also had a say in the debate. While he previously stood in support of DDP’s win, ‘The Last Stylebender’ has seemingly shifted his stance and predicted that it might actually be Strickland’s win.

Surprisingly, the beloved UFC color commentator, Joe Rogan was of a similar mindset. But why did Adesanya bury the hatchet against Strickland? Let’s find out!

Israel Adesanya weighs in on Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland 2

In episode #164 of the JRE MMA Show, the beloved 57-year-old podcaster sat down together with the New Zealander for a 3-hour-long conversation. During their chat, the duo stumbled upon the rematch between DDP and Strickland. While the MMA realm was debating about the venue for the fight, Joe Rogan and Adesanya talked about the probable outcome of the bout. 

Israel Adesanya claimed that Sean Strickland had a better chance of winning the fight and becoming the middleweight champion once again. He voiced, “See what happens with him and DDP. He could win, you know, beat him and then…” The New Zealander’s feelings were reciprocated by the JRE host, as he pointed out that Strickland had almost defeated Du Plessis at UFC 297, even though the outcome unanimously decided DDP’s win.

Adesanya admitted that it was indeed a close fight. Joe Rogan didn’t skip out on the way Strickland swung his arms towards the end, pointing that both of the fighters had exhausted their gas tank. But ‘The Last Stylebender’ wasn’t opting out of the chance to fight Dricus Du Plessis once again. He continued, “But we’ll see. We’ll see what happens in that fight. And yeah, at the moment, I just, look, I kinda like the feeling of not knowing, because sometimes people ask, ‘Who you gonna fight next? When you gonna fight again?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I’m just chilling.’ So again, I’m just gonna keep training and sometimes short notice sh-t happens. You know what I mean? And it’s like, well I’m already in shape. F-ck let’s go! But we’ll see.”

And it’s not just Izzy who believes that he can have a rematch with DDP. Even the current MW champ’s coach, Morne Visser, had similar thoughts. 

DDP’s coach announces the possibility of Adesanya vs. Du Plessis rematch

Talking to Submission Radio, Morne Visser hinted at his belief that the fighting community might witness DDP going up against Adesanya one more time in 2025. He said, “We will fight Izzy and Dana’s talking about it. I think that the rematch that will be given to Izzy will be against Dricus, which makes the most sense, two Africans in South Africa. I honestly think that we going to get the rematch against Izzy sometime next year in 2025. The Izzy that faced Dricus, Sean’s got no chance against that Izzy, man. He was the best version of Izzy I’ve ever seen. So if the UFC gives him the rematch, awesome. But I think that Izzy shouldn’t waste his time with s–t like that.”

However, Strickland on the other hand was confident that he would be the one to get the fight ahead of Adesanya. After all, Dana White had promised to make the fight happen. And at the press conference for DWCS season 8 week 9, the UFC head honcho confirmed the matchup. 

While Adesanya stood in support of Strickland taking the win, there was a time when he thought otherwise. He took reference from their previous bout at UFC 297 and claimed that Du Plessis would yet again defeat ‘Tarzan’, and the reason was reflected in the fighters’ low gas tank. 

What are your thoughts regarding the matchup between Strickland and Du Plessis? Do you think Rogan and Adesanya are right in their prediction? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.