After stealing the belt from Sean Strickland, new middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis received a callout from Khamzat Chimaev. The champ, however, is not interested in the Russian fighter, saying a fight with Israel Adesanya would be a better bout the fans would love to see. Fortunately for him, the former champ echoes his interest in a fight.
Du Plessis is the new middleweight champ of UFC, and he doesn’t want to waste his time wearing the belt. After the fight, the South African immediately named Adesanya as his next target. The callout makes sense since the two were originally expected to face each other at UFC 293, but Strickland instead fought “The Last Stylebender” and won the title. After this, the Nigerian-New Zealander announced that he’d take a long break from his MMA career.
Nonetheless, Adesanya hinted at his approaching return recently, and Du Plessis might be the one to welcome him back. After UFC 297, “Stillknocks” called out Adesanya, explaining that a fight between them is something that fans would love to see.
“That’s just the fight the fans want to see,” said Du Plessis. “I want to fight the best competition. There’s a lot of guys I’m going to be fighting, but the fans want to see Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus du Plessis. There’s a lot of hype that was already built on it.
“If the fans, there’s some way they start backtracking and the fans don’t really want to see Adesanya, we don’t do that fight. It’s fine to me. I don’t care who it is. But that’s just the fight on top of my head that I think the people want to see and would get a lot of people excited.”
Unsurprisingly, Adesanya is receptive to the idea and even posted some instances where both of them met, including their UFC 290 faceoff.
“This arc in my story was written long ago,” Adesanya wrote. “Our paths are destined to cross again. Stay tuned for the next episode, thanks for watching. We Write History.”
It is unknown when the two will exactly meet, but Du Plessis is considering returning at UFC 300, even if it will be a quick turnaround for him.
“I’m up for another round if they want to go,” Du Plessis said. “Yeah, I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but UFC 300 sounds amazing.”
Adesanya, nonetheless, is not the only fighter interested in challenging Du Plessis in the future. After the champ’s UFC 297 fight, “Borz” quickly called him out, expressing confidence that the promotion would give him the title shot.
The South African fighter, nonetheless, scoffed at the move.
This is not surprising, as the champ recently downplayed Chimaev’s credentials and ranking. The fighter also dismissed the title fight the UFC “promised” to the 29-year-old, saying it is something he would not get in his reign. Yet, commentator Michael Bisping lambasted Du Plessis for this, saying the Russian is the most eligible choice for him at the present time. As the sports analyst pointed out, Adesanya remains in recovery, making his comeback timeline unknown. The 34-year-old affirmed this weeks ago when he revealed his plan not to return to training until the end of February.
