UFC President Dana White announced last week that former champion Robert Whittaker will take on Dricus Du Plessis on July 9th at the UFC 290 PPV. Following this big news, retired UFC superstar Chael Sonnen has expressed his disappointment.
The former middleweight contender wants the promotion to cancel the title eliminator bout and let Israel Adesanya defend his belt against Du Plessis.
#UFC290 just became even đŽđ¶đčđŹ đșđ»đšđȘđČđŹđ« đ€©
đą @RobWhittakerMMA vs @DricusDuPlessis
đą @Ruthless_RL vs @NikoHybridPrice
đą @JalinTurner vs @DanTheHangman[ Sat. Jul 8 | @TMobileArena | #UFCFightWeek ] pic.twitter.com/61HPCfnVt1
— UFC (@ufc) April 21, 2023
While speaking in his YouTube video, Sonnen explained why it makes more sense to book Adesanya vs Du Plessis rather than scheduling the Whittaker vs Dricus fight. âIs it too late to scratch it? Is it too late? Why are we doing this fight?â
“Itâs not too late. We shouldnât have made du Plessis vs. Whittaker, should have we, guys? We shouldâve made du Plessis vs. Adesanya, shouldnât have we, guys? I mean, Izzy says, âIâm not going to fight anybody else until I fight him.â Izzy doesnât care if [du Plessis] doesnât beat Whittaker. Are you aware of that? Itâs very important that you understand this,” he further added.
Chael Sonnen has a valid point as Adesanya made it clear after his UFC 287 win over Alex Pereira that he wants to fight new guys. Moreover, he wants the South African middleweight to win this title eliminator bout. With Adesanya ‘defeating’ Whittaker in both their meetings, it is needless to say that even fans want to see Izzy fight a new opponent.
Because The Last Stylebender has a win over everyone in the top five rankings, many people would have not questioned the promotion booking Adesanya vs Du Plessis. However, Chael’s wish for the UFC to cancel the bout between Whittaker and Dricus at UFC 290 will likely not come true unless either middleweight fighter suffers an injury.
Chael Sonnen criticizes Robert Whittaker and Dricus Du Plessis for not promoting their fight
Chael Sonnen was unhappy with how the promotion failed to capitalise on the budding rivalry between Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis. However, that’s not the only thing he is disappointed about.
With Du Plessis and Robert Whittaker not posting many stories or speaking about each other, the Bad Guy criticized the two fighters for not showing interest in their matchup.
“I never once told you about any heat that Whittaker has thrown at all towards Du Plessis. I did not tell you about one tweet, one interview, one Instagram post, one comment, one thought. They could have been kind. And quite frankly Du Plessis hasn’t done that either. We’ve got two guys that don’t want to fight each other,” said Uncle Chael.
Do you want to see Dricus duke it out against Robert? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
