Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya is the Fight for African Supremacy in the UFC

Shortly after that incident, Adesanya lost the title, via unanimous decision, to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia. In January, du Plessis won the belt from Strickland by split decision, and will now be looking to retain it from one of the greatest middleweight fighters in UFC history.

This fight will be Adesanya’s first since his loss to Strickland, and he’ll be looking to become the middleweight champion for a third time. Meanwhile, du Plessis will be fighting to become the first fighter to retain the middleweight belt since Adesanya successfully defended his title back in 2022 against Jared Cannonier at UFC 276 in Paradise, NV.

From a purely fighting standpoint, the stakes are incredibly high. However, the anticipated bout has been doused with a cultural animosity, especially within the context of Africa as a potential hub for mixed martial arts fighting. Shortly after his title triumph in January, du Plessis doubled down on referring to himself as a true African fighter, a controversial statement he made at a time when Adesanya, Nigerian-born Kamaru Usman and Cameroonian fighter Francis Ngannou had all held UFC titles across different weight divisions.

“Did those belts ever go to Africa?” du Plessis rhetorically asked shortly after his UFC debut in 2020. “As far as I know, it came to America and New Zealand. I’m going to take the belt to Africa. I’m the African fighter in the UFC.” For Stillknocks, his comments were meant to reflect that he was born, raised, trained and still lives in South Africa, in comparison to the three “African Kings” who all left the continent when they were young.

Those comments clearly irked Adesanya, and he let some of his vitriol show during the exchange at UFC 290. “I never discredited you as a real African, you tried to discredit three Real African UFC Champions,” he wrote in an incensed post on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the brief faceoff. “You started this, and I will finish this! That’s not a threat, that’s a promise.”

In the few months since their fight was fixed, a significant portion of the commentary around the two fighters have been about this single cultural issue. Both have stoked the conversation, with du Plessis standing on his “fact,” while Adesanya has said he doesn’t care to win back the middleweight belt as much as he wants to trounce his UFC 305 opponent.

At their pre-fight press conference earlier today, the animosity was again on display, as Adesanya cursed at du Plessis with tears coming down his face. The South African fighter had suggested that his opponent would travel around with servants, after the Nigerian-born, New Zealand-raised Adesanya said he would travel to Nigeria and South Africa after recapturing the belt.

Du Plessis’ comments were a reference to Adesanya saying he grew up with domestic workers in Nigeria before his family moved when he was four-years-old. Annoyed by the comment, Adesanya, whose family was in attendance at the press conference, replied by stating that he and his father had to do menial jobs in New Zealand while his mother studied for a nursing degree. But that was only after he issued angry threats.

“I don’t need any extra motivation. Fuck the belt, I’m coming for your head,” Adesanya said. “You don’t even know anything about my story. You have no idea who the fuck I am. I’m going to show you who you are Sunday, so shut the f*** up.”

“I don’t care about your story,” du Plessis replied. “You’re talking about I made it about anything else other than being the first residing African champion. You can’t change that. You can’t change those facts.”

Going into Saturday — or Sunday, as the fight is scheduled for 2 p.m. local Australian time — du Plessis holds a slight edge as the title holder, having proven himself with two straight upset victories against former title holder Whittaker, and then snagging the belt from Strickland. However, the South African knows that it will be a big test against Adesanya, who he recently referred to as “the best middleweight other than myself.”

Meanwhile, Adesanya hasn’t fought in over a year, but there’s belief that he’s in better shape than ever and has learned from his last fight to avoid a second straight loss.

“Dricus [du Plessis] is very awkward, unorthodox and he’s got awkward pressure, which is very hard for people to deal with, and we’ve seen awkward pressure from Strickland give Izzy [Adesanya] problems, but that doesn’t happen to Izzy twice,” former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovskisaid in a breakdown of the fights for the UFC 305 event. “I think Israel Adesanya is gonna put on that type of performance where he gets a crazy finish and that’s saying something because Dricus [du Plessis] is no joke.”