Israel Adesanya always keeps a close eye on the middleweight division but one fight in particular that definitely interests him is the upcoming UFC 312 main event when Dricus du Plessis defends his title against Sean Strickland.
Of course, Adesanya has history with both fighters having faced them in his past two appearances in the UFC before booking his upcoming matchup against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday. When it comes to du Plessis specifically, Adesanya had quite a bit of ill will with the current UFC middleweight champion but they seemed to settle their beefs after fighting this past August.
In fact, Adesanya now has nothing but praise when addressing du Plessis as a fighter and champion, especially with the unorthodox way he always seems to get the job done.
“The great fighters I think 90 percent or 80 percent follow the rules and 10 percent or 20 percent of the time break the rules,” Adesanya explained when speaking to MMA Fighting by way of Stake.com. “Dricus flipped that shit around.
“10 percent of the time he follows the rules of striking and then other 90 percent he breaks the rules and he’s great. You can’t fault him for that. He’s so great at it. It’s working for him. Don’t try to fix it.”
With Adesanya fighting on Saturday, the attention then shifts to du Plessis vs. Strickland 2, which takes place exactly one week later.
In their first fight, du Plessis got the nod via split decision in a back-and-forth battle that saw both fighters have their moments. Strickland established a nasty lead jab that continuously found a home for him while du Plessis looked to do maximum damage while opening up cuts on his opponent that had blood pouring down his face.
As they prepare for the rematch, Strickland issued an interesting challenge by telling du Plessis that they needed to meet on the feet and agree to no takedowns during the five-round battle.
“I’m going to need you to be a f*cking man and I’m going to need you to stand up, not go to your knees, and we’re going to need to f*cking strike like men,” Strickland said on social media. “I know you like to wrestle, and you like to f*cking choke people out and do some gay shit, dude but I’ll make a pact with you. You make a pact with me that we f*cking stand up like f*cking men and we settle this shit like men.’’
For his part, du Plessis already scoffed at the suggestion that he should just turn his fight with Strickland into a boxing match rather than actually use all of his skills as a mixed martial artist.
Adesanya definitely agrees.
“That’s kind of silly,” Adesanya said about Strickland’s demands. “It’s silly to say. I don’t think he means it because Dricus is good at what he does. Trying to take that away from him would be you’re not really proving you’re the best then.”
While the first fight between du Plessis and Strickland was very close, Adesanya still favors the champion to retain his title in the rematch.
“Look, I think Dricus is probably going to win that fight,” Adesanya said. “He’s great at what he does.”
As far as potentially earning his own rematch against du Plessis or Strickland after he’s done at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Adesanya didn’t even want to think that far ahead.
He’s enjoying that he can fight freely right now with no expectations about timing but more than anything Adesanya doesn’t want to take his eyes off Imavov until he gets the job done.
“An Israel Adesanya 2025 would look like this fight coming up with my hand raised and I haven’t even planned out the rest,” Adesanya said. “All I’m focused on right now is getting in there with Imavov, doing work and getting my hand raised. Definitely where I’m at. After that, I’ll deal with it as it comes.”
