Dricus du Plessis became the UFC’s new middleweight champion at UFC 297 this past weekend after earning a split-decision win over Sean Strickland and then called out former titleholder Israel Adesanya.
“There was another guy who tried to take my shine. He lost his shine, now I have your shine,” du Plessis said in the Octagon after his win. “He didn’t get into the cage tonight, but Israel Adesanya, get your ass back in the cage so we can settle the score.”
Adesanya and du Plessis had been scheduled to face each other in a title fight last year, but when du Plessis had to withdraw from the fight it was Strickland who took his place and shocked the world by beating ‘The Last Stylebender’ on the scorecards.
Clearly du Plessis now wants to settle that unfinished business, and Adesanya’s post-fight comments on Saturday night suggests he also wants that fight.
“Never stole shine. Never lost mine!!” Adesanya wrote on social media, then added in another post: “This arc in my story was written long ago. Our paths are destined to cross again. Stay tuned for the next episode, thanks for watching. We Write History.”
That has left fans hoping that a du Plessis vs. Strickland title clash could be the missing piece of the puzzle to headline UFC 300 in April, but MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani has suggested that’s far from a certainty.
“I’ve inquired multiple times about Izzy leading up to all this,” Helwani reportedon ‘The Ringer’ UFC 297 post-fight show. “And I’m repeatedly told ‘Not ready to go at UFC 300’ … Maybe the UFC now says ‘All right, how do we make this right, how do we get you to come fight at UFC 300?’ I don’t know.”
