Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Dricus Du Plessis successfully defended the UFC Middleweight Title against former UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 305.
There was a lot of heat between the two leading into their title fight, but Du Plessis says he has more respect for Adesanya after their title bout.
“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 said at the post-fight press conference (transcript via Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie). “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.”
Du Plessis did become the first fighter to submit Adesanya in a professional MMA fight at UFC 305.
The middleweight champion also says that his rivalry with Adesanya wasn’t faked in any way.
“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.”
