Israel Adesanya regained his middleweight throne with a knockout victory over Alex Pereira at UFC 287. Rival Pereira moved to the light heavyweight division after losing to Adesanya. Now Izzy has no choice but to find someone in the middleweight division for a fight. However, Adesanya had an interest in fighting Dricus Du Plessis.
Israel Adesanya asked for Dricus Du Plessis as his next opponent. Adesanya revealed on his YouTube channel that the UFC decided not to book the no. 8-ranked fighter up against the champion. The champion wanted a new opponent who can challenge Adesanya like Pereira. ‘The Last Stylebender’ has no definitive option in the middleweight division at the moment.
Adesanya talked about the fight between Robert Whittaker and Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290. He said, “I’d say Rob can probably get him out of there in the second round, or just beat him up for three rounds. Dricus’ only chance – I don’t like to say there’s no way, because there’s always a way, but he can’t outlast Rob. I think Rob will be faster than him, fitter than him, so he might just have to make it ugly. But Rob can also fight ugly as well, so we’ll see. …but I really want Dricus”
Adesanya’s coach, Eugene Bareman, thinks Whittaker does not deserve his next title shot. He thinks Robert has not done anything noteworthy after his loss against Adesanya. Bareman once wanted Adesanya to fight the light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill for the 205-pound title. However, it appears Adesanya will fight the winner of the Whittaker vs Du Plessis fight.
Related: Israel Adesanya goes all-in with $10k wager on Lewis Hamilton’s top 3 finish at F1 Monaco
Why Israel Adesanya wants to fight Dricus Du Plessis next?
Earlier this year, the 33-year-old champion got angry at Dricus Du Plessis for questioning his nationality. Du Plessis said, “Did those belts ever go to Africa? As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’m going to take a belt to Africa.” Adesanya fired back at Du Plessis and called him a racial slur.
The statement from Du Plessis became the focus after Adesanya regained the title at UFC 287. It became a huge rivalry that the coach of Du Plessis went on Instagram to blast Adesanya for his insensitive comments.
UFC 290’s middleweight bout between Whittaker and Du Plessis will determine the new challenger for the title. Adesanya will carefully observe the PPV in July to study who his new opponent will be. UFC 290 features the featherweight title unification bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez.
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