Dricus Du Plessis has reflected on the faceoff with Israel Adesanya at UFC 290.
After Du Plessis scored a second-round TKO win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, Adesanya came into the Octagon to faceoff with the South African. When they had a faceoff, Adesanya was vocal about his displeasure about Du Plessis and dropped the N-word numerous times which Du Plessis says shouldn’t happen.
“There’s people looking up to you as champion, I believe, and that was my statement afterward, saying, ‘You behaved like a child and a clown, behave like a man.’ You are an example to people all over the world,” Du Plessis said of Adesanya on Cameron Saaiman’s YouTube channel (h/T MMAFighting). “One of the biggest stars in sports. Not only in this sport, in sports. So, he talked about the vibe somewhere in this whole saga but doing something going with racial slurs does not belong in sports. It doesn’t belong in the world, in my opinion. I do not want that a part of anything that I’m doing.
“This sport is so amazing and has given so many people so much things, and bringing [in] race, color, with racial slurs, all of that stuff, immediately made me like, ‘I don’t want to be a part of this.’ That’s why I just walked away. I’m not gonna engage in that. That is not the example I want to set for people. That is not what my message to anybody in the world is. I guess he can do whatever he wants. Dana [White] said it. He can say whatever he wants. He can. I’m just not entertaining that. I’m not entertaining any talk about the racial slurs that he’s been using,” Du Plessis continued.
‘My man is in Trouble’
Although Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t like what Israel Adesanya said at the faceoff, he is happy that he got to go face-to-face with the champ.
When the two went face-to-face, Dricus Du Plessis says he left Israel Adesanya’s energy and he believes the champ was nervous and knows he’s in trouble.
“I hoped he’d get in that cage because he’ll feel my energy when I’m in that cage. He’s gonna see how big I am in that cage. Now I’ve seen him in that cage and I felt his energy,” Du Plessis said. “There’s only one time you see your opponent in a cage and that’s when you fight him. Now I’ve seen him before the fight. Now I’ve felt what he feels like in the cage and my man is in trouble, I’ll tell you that. And he knows it. You can feel that energy. Especially that energy that you’re feeling after you’ve just knocked out Robert Whittaker.”
As of right now, it’s uncertain when Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus Du Plessis will happen as all signs point to Adesanya fighting Sean Strickland next.
