PERTH, Australia – [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag] is not looking to be friends with [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] after UFC 305, but admits a new level of respect has been formed.
After a heated and at times uncomfortable build to Saturday’s middleweight title fight at RAC Arena, Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) went into the octagon and scored a fourth-round submission win over Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) to achieve his first title defense.
Immediately after the fight, the pair spent a good amount of time embracing inside the octagon, with Adesanya raising Du Plessis’ hand for the world to see. Then when they got backstage, Du Plessis gifted his opponent a custom jacket before Adesanya labeled him a “true African champion.”
Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya share an incredible backstage moment after #UFC305 and embrace each other families. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Dsu7btTZyV
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) August 18, 2024
It seemed all the animosity that once felt so personal had all melted away. Du Plessis said that was largely the case, and although he stands behind all his pre-fight comments, the champion said his admiration for Adesanya has grown.
“At the end of the day, what I said was never to challenge Israel or any other African fighter on being the first African fighter (to win a UFC title),” Du Plessis told MMA Junkie and other reporters post-fight at UFC 305. “It was the first African fighter residing, and that is still the fact. Nothing can change that. I know at the presser when he got super emotional – I never went after his family. I just wanted to make sure – I have parents, too, and I respect anybody’s parents. I just went over to him and said after the fight, ‘If it sounded like I said anything bad about your parents, that was not the case. What I’m saying to you? Harden up. If you want to cry about that, so be it. I will never disrespect your parents.’ He said, ‘No, no, no.’ He understands that. As a warrior to a warrior. Me and Israel Adesanya, we are not friends because on a personal level we do not see eye-to-eye. But, warrior to warrior, after spending that time in the octagon and what he’s achieved in the sport, it’s no secret I respect that.
“After spending that time in the octagon, you can’t not respect that man and what he’s done in the sport. To give him that jacket was a reminder, a token of appreciation and a thank you for this. It’s a memory for me. It’s such a massive moment in my life fighting a great fighter like Israel Adesanya. I brought the jacket to specifically give it to him before the fight. It was going to be win or lose I was going to give him that because he said he wants to fight warriors from all the lands, and I respect that and I wanted to give him that as a token of appreciation of fighting and giving me that amazing fight and bringing the best out of me, and also as something to remember this magic moment of an all-Africa main event.”
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No matter what time of hard feelings are shown pre-fight, historically most athletes are ready to make peace after they do battle. A certain bond is created when sharing time in the cage, especially in a hard-fought contest like Du Plessis, 30, and Adesanya, 35, had at UFC 305.
For Adesanya to go out of his way to raise Du Plessis’ hand in triumph on multiple occasions is further evidence of that, and although he’s not keen to become buddies, Du Plessis said the post-fight scenes were further proof of what makes MMA such a unique and powerful sport.
“I say this all the time: Myself and Israel, the beef was not fake,” Du Plessis said. “The fact that we don’t like each other on a personal level was not fake. At least not on my side. It’s just irrelevant in that octagon. What does it matter? I’m not talking about that I hate Israel Adesanya. I’m just saying that if we were in a social setting, I would probably not be sitting at his table. And that’s fine. … But the respect that I have for him in this sport and what he’s done, it can’t be denied. Because if you don’t, you’re an idiot. If you can’t see what Israel has done in the sport and appreciate that as a warrior, a fellow warrior, you’re an idiot. The man has done great things in the sport. It means the world to me that sport brings people together.”
Du Plessis said he couldn’t be much more satisfied with his performance against Adesanya given the way the former champion showed up. Adesanya made no excuses in the aftermath of his loss and paid all respect to the winner, and Du Plessis is grateful for that.
“The man was as good as I thought,” Du Plessis said. “He was as good. I’m so happy that he went out there and after the fight said, ‘This was the best Israel Adesanya.’ He felt great. You could see it in his physique. That’s equal to work. He had more heart (than I thought). I said I would take him out of there in the third, and I got it in the fourth. I could see in the end of the third he was starting to break down, starting to break down. But there just wasn’t enough, and in that fourth round (I submitted him).”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.