Israel Adesanya has confirmed that he will be attempting to reclaim the middleweight title from current champion Dricus du Plessis in what’s likely to be the main event of UFC 305 in Perth, Australia on August 17th.
“The SUN of Africa is the same sun that lights up our planet,” Adesanya wrote on Instagram alongside a photo confirming his next fight. “The SUN will set and will rise again until you walk into it. The SUN, enjoy while it shines. Darkness falls when it’s gone.”
Dan Hooker had let slip a few days ago that Adesanya was going to be on the UFC 305 card, but it’s only now that it’s been officially confirmed that his opponent will indeed be 185lb champ du Plessis, who claimed the belt with a split-decision victory over Sean Strickland in January.
There’s bad blood between Du Plessis and Adesanya for some time, in part due to ‘Stillknocks’ having called out his counterpart in the past for not being a true African due to the fact that the Nigerian born star now lives in New Zealand, while du Plessis remains in South Africa where he was born.
If things had gone differently the two could have already fought at UFC 293 in September of last year when Adesanya was still champion, but despite fight being set up by a square off in the Octagon between the two a few months earlier, du Plessis later decided against taking the bout due to a leg injury.
