Israel Adesanya all the time retains a detailed eye on the middleweight division however one combat specifically that positively pursuits him is the upcoming UFC 312 major occasion when Dricus du Plessis defends his title towards Sean Strickland.
After all, Adesanya has historical past with each fighters having confronted them in his previous two appearances within the UFC earlier than reserving his upcoming matchup towards Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday. With regards to du Plessis particularly, Adesanya had fairly a little bit of ailing will with the present UFC middleweight champion however they appeared to settle their beefs after preventing this previous August.
The truth is, Adesanya now has nothing however reward when addressing du Plessis as a fighter and champion, particularly with the unorthodox approach he all the time appears to get the job performed.
“The nice fighters I believe 90 % or 80 % observe the foundations and 10 % or 20 % of the time break the foundations,” Adesanya defined when chatting with MMA Preventing by the use of Stake.com. “Dricus flipped that shit round.
“10 % of the time he follows the foundations of hanging after which different 90 % he breaks the foundations and he’s nice. You’ll be able to’t fault him for that. He’s so nice at it. It’s working for him. Don’t attempt to repair it.”
With Adesanya preventing on Saturday, the eye then shifts to du Plessis vs. Strickland 2, which takes place precisely one week later.
Of their first combat, du Plessis bought the nod by way of cut up determination in a back-and-forth battle that noticed each fighters have their moments. Strickland established a nasty lead jab that repeatedly discovered a house for him whereas du Plessis seemed to do most injury whereas opening up cuts on his opponent that had blood pouring down his face.
As they put together for the rematch, Strickland issued an attention-grabbing problem by telling du Plessis that they wanted to satisfy on the ft and conform to no takedowns through the five-round battle.
“I’m going to want you to be a f*cking man and I’m going to want you to face up, not go to your knees, and we’re going to want to f*cking strike like males,” Strickland mentioned on social media. “I do know you wish to wrestle, and also you wish to f*cking choke folks out and do some homosexual shit, dude however I’ll make a pact with you. You make a pact with me that we f*cking get up like f*cking males and we settle this shit like males.’’
For his half, du Plessis already scoffed on the suggestion that he ought to simply flip his combat with Strickland right into a boxing match fairly than really use all of his expertise as a combined martial artist.
Adesanya positively agrees.
“That’s form of foolish,” Adesanya mentioned about Strickland’s calls for. “It’s foolish to say. I don’t suppose he means it as a result of Dricus is nice at what he does. Making an attempt to take that away from him could be you’re not likely proving you’re the perfect then.”
Whereas the primary combat between du Plessis and Strickland was very shut, Adesanya nonetheless favors the champion to retain his title within the rematch.
“Look, I believe Dricus might be going to win that combat,” Adesanya mentioned. “He’s nice at what he does.”
So far as doubtlessly incomes his personal rematch towards du Plessis or Strickland after he’s performed at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Adesanya didn’t even need to suppose that far forward.
He’s having fun with that he can combat freely proper now with no expectations about timing however greater than something Adesanya doesn’t need to take his eyes off Imavov till he will get the job performed.
“An Israel Adesanya 2025 would seem like this combat arising with my hand raised and I haven’t even deliberate out the remaining,” Adesanya mentioned. “All I’m centered on proper now’s getting in there with Imavov, doing work and getting my hand raised. Positively the place I’m at. After that, I’ll cope with it because it comes.”