UFC champion Israel Adesanya wants Dricus Du Plessis to “win” in order to earn title shot against him

Israel Adesanya is currently riding the high tides of his incredible second-round knockout victory against his arch-rival Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira at UFC 287. Although the second-time welterweight champ doesn’t seem to be sitting out for too long as per various reports ‘The Last Stylebender’ is looking to get back inside the cage before the end of this summer.

Israel Adesanya will undoubtedly be paying close attention to the upcoming middleweight title eliminator between Robert Whittaker and Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290 on July 8. Having fought and defeated Whittaker twice, it seems pretty obvious who the champion will be rooting for a new challenge in du Plesis. Referring to Adesanya, du Plessis wrote on twitter, “So you say I haven’t earned my title shot yet? Hold my beer watch this.”. Izzy was quick to respond as he hoped the South African gets his hand raised against Whittaker. “Please win”, Adesanya responded.

The advancing du Plessis, who is unbeaten in the UFC and has won four of his previous five fights, received a shout-out from “The Last Stylebender” after that his victorious performance against Pereira. Adesanya has previously competed at the light heavyweight division but has recently cleared his intentions to continue at the 185lbs division and hence is looking for fresh challenge in du Plessis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_pYS_Y78iQ&pp=ygUfaXNyYWVsIGFkZXNhbnlhIHZzIGFsZXggcGVyZWlyYQ%3D%3D

He said after the victory “I don’t wanna give [him] clout,’ the UFC champ said. ‘I don’t. I wanna whoop his a** so bad. I wanna whoop his a** so bad. I wanna do it in South Africa, or Nigeria, but he’s got to do work, he’s got to do something, show me something, so I can whoop that a** and I can show you history.”

Adesanya continued “I’ll remind you, because you got to choose your words wisely when you speak on people that have come before you, people that paved the way for you. You gotta pick your words wisely. You wanna try and be a big boy – I want to be with the big boys. Go choose your words wisely, but I don’t wanna give him no clout. ‘But if he does work and, and, I pray to God, he keeps winning, I will gladly drag his carcass across South Africa.”

Israel Adesanya vs Dricus du Plessis match-up

For the longest of times Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker were considered to be the two best middleweights in the world and after Adesanya defeated him twice, he was way above the league until Alex Pereira came into the picture. Now that ‘The Last Style bender’ has settled his rivalry with Pereira, a new wave of challenges await.

Du Plessis who is currently on five-fight winning streak in the UFC is the hottest middleweight prospect as of now and if somehow he is able to defeat the former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, it will open new doors of opportunities for him.

Aryan Verma

95 articles

Aryan Verma is a Combat Sports writer covering UFC and Boxing for SportsZion. He is currently pursuing a bachelor's in technology degree in Computer Science. Being a martial art practitioner himself, Aryan cherishes the opportunity to share his thoughts on latest combat sport events through his blogs.

|

Leave a Comment

Sportszion