The bad blood between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya has boiled down to them finally getting inside the cage in a matter of days at UFC 305. With vast experience on both sides, the middleweight duo has more wins than losses in their records. But how will their skills compare this weekend at the RAC Arena? Well, there’s no doubt that we’ll get the answer soon, but for today, we’ll have a peek at the career trajectory of both fighters, which is rather similar.

It’s well established that Israel Adesanya had an elite kickboxing career, along with his arch-rival Alex Pereira, whose rivalry stretched from Glory Kickboxing in China to the UFC in the USA. However, there are others in the UFC with the same background, and the list includes our reigning middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis.

All we know about Dricus Du Plessis’ kickboxing career? The MW champ’s fighting style

Fans have come to know Dricus Du Plessis as this powerful middleweight contender capable of knocking out opponents with ferocity. But the South African star has a background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, judo, and of course, kickboxing, as we’ve mentioned already. However, Du Plessis did not compete in a professional capacity because he fought 33 amateur fights, but with a clean sweeping 33-o record.

Most of Dricus Du Plessis’s wins came via knockouts, which has been the same for ‘Stillknocks’ in MMA. Moreover, the UFC star earned a well-deserved gold medal in a kickboxing competition. The competition was based on the K-1 style of fighting, taking place at the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) Junior World Championships in 2012.

Things, meanwhile, get even more exciting if we take a look at Israel Adesanya and his exploits in the kickboxing world. But before we do that, we can sum his kickboxing career up as a legendary one, to say the least.

Israel Adesanya’s kickboxing record and accomplishments

While Israel Adesanya hasn’t fought in as many kickboxing matches as someone like the legendary Ramon Dekkers has, with an 186-36-10 record, ‘Izzy’ does have a highly respectable record for himself. Competing in a total of 80 kickboxing bouts, ‘The Last Stylebender’ has won a total of 75 fights and lost on 5 occasions, including twice against Alex Pereira. The couple of losses against ‘Poatan’ may sting him a bit, given that he did the same to Adesanya in the UFC, but the Nigerian-born Kiwi star has boatloads of accomplishments under his belt.

Israel Adesanya’s first professional kickboxing experience came at the ‘King of the Ring’ tournament, which took place in his native country of New Zealand. The format of the tournament is a kind of single elimination rule, and the entire tournament sums up in just a single night. Adesanya emerged victorious in that competition on three occasions, twice in the 86 kg category and once in the 100 kg category. But the biggest kickboxing tenure was yet to come for ‘Izzy’.

One of the biggest Kickboxing promotions, Glory, saw Israel Adesanya make his debut under their banner in 2016, but his first fight was a loss, all thanks to Alex Pereira. But from then on, ‘Izzy’ would go on to become the Glory middleweight champion in the very same year. His second fight against Pereira would even win the 2017 ‘Fight of the Year’ honor bestowed by the Combat Press.

Now that we’ve established the kickboxing background of both Isreal Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis, let’s see how their fighting styles and statistics fare against each other.

Comparing the fighting styles of Adesanya and Du Plessis

With 16 career knockouts in MMA, Israel Adesanya is often referred to as one of the best striking technicians in the UFC. Where nobody has found a way to put Alex Pereira’s light out, ‘Izzy’ did in style at UFC 287. He might have a modest striking accuracy of 48 percent, but that does not highlight how smooth he is inside the Octagon. Additionally, Adesanya also has grappling skills in his arsenal, as he’s a purple belt holder in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He’s shown some exceptional takedown defense in his fights with the stat standing at 78 percent.

Dricus Du Plessis, meanwhile, has also showcased his relentless gas tank and striking power, registering four knockouts in just seven UFC fights. Who knows how many more are to come? In addition, Du Plessis also has a slightly better striking accuracy than Israel Adesanya, according to the stats, which stands at 50 percent. But the hole in his game is the inability to avoid too many takedowns.

The beef, the title, and the buzz are there for the UFC 305 headliner, and fans are expecting a war between Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis. What do you think will happen during the fight this weekend? Drop your views in the comments below.