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It sure appears that No. 1 contender Dricus du Plessis struck a nerve with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya
Du Plessis, who is 6-0 in the UFC, staked him claim as the top challenger to Adesanya’s title with a TKO victory over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in June.
Months prior, he caused a sit when he claimed he was the “real African” in the UFC.
The South Africa native and resident took aim at both Francis Ngannou and Adesanya with the comments, both of whom were born in Africa but now live elsewhere.
That led to a wild altercation between Adesanya and du Plessis after the latter’s victory over Whittaker.
The two were expected to fight at UFC 293 in Sydney. But a foot injury to du Plessis seems to be the reason the fight will be put on hold.
That doesn’t seem to sit well with Adesanya.
“Now he doesn’t want to fight,” Adesanya said on The Halfcast Podcast (h/t MMA News). “Even after [UFC 290], he’s like, ‘Oh, bro, all you had to do was put some gloves on, we could have got it on right there.’ B**** a** f***. You wouldn’t have. ‘Cause guess what? He didn’t want it…People were like, ‘Oh, he’s so classy walking away. He’s so [classy].’ I’m like, ‘Bro, he didn’t even walk away. He felt me.’ He didn’t wanna feel me.”
But that was just the start.
“He’s not a scared man, he’s a tough dude,” Adesanya continued. “He’s very crafty, and he’s got a good team behind him. Smart team. I don’t think he’s a scared man, but I’ll tell you he’s scared of me. You know when you look in someone’s eyes, you just know straight away. He didn’t call me to the cage, I stepped in the cage myself. I didn’t even see him call me. I stepped into the cage because I made this s*** happen. This mother f***** — I hope, I really was hoping he’d f****** step up. But he’s a b****, and I’ll tell you right now. Keep training. Keep training. I’ve got something for your ass, so keep training.”
Buckle up. This is just the beginning of what feels like a potentially wild fight build up.