Danny Rubenstein, the manager of Dricus Du Plessis had a conversation with Israel Adesanya’s manager before UFC 297.
Du Plessis was set to headline UFC 297 as he was taking on Sean Strickland for the middleweight title. It was an intriguing matchup and before the fight, Rubenstein messaged Adesanya’s team to see if the former champ was healthy.
According to Rubenstein, he says they wanted to make sure Adesanya was available so Du Plessis didn’t waste his callout.
Du Plessis’s manager details conversation with Adesanya’s manager
“Preference-wise, I think it’s Adesanya. There’s heat between the two of them, they’ve already done all the lead-up to build the fight. I think he’s who we’d all prefer as a team,” Rubenstein said on the Anik & Florian podcast. “Khamzat, I don’t think he’s a middleweight, I think he’s a welterweight who’s lazy and can’t make weight at 170 anymore. Alex Pereira, I’d rather see Dricus go up and fight him at 205 and see if he can become double champ. I don’t love the whole double-champ movement, but if that’s the case, I’d rather him go up and get the second belt than him defend it at ’85.
“Very honestly, he wasn’t gonna call out Izzy if Izzy wasn’t gonna be ready. I hit up Izzy’s manager like, ‘Hey is Izzy gonna be ready? We’re gonna call out Izzy if he’s gonna be ready.’ But if he’s not gonna be ready for 300 I don’t want Dricus barking up the wrong tree. We’ll call out Alex Pereira, he’s right there in the Octagon. They told me Izzy would be ready, so we talked as a team and that was the callout he made,” Rubenstein added.
As of right now, the UFC has yet to make Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya at UFC 300 and whether or not they will is to be seen.
But, Rubenstein is hopeful the fight will be made as he knows Du Plessis headlining UFC 300 is big for his client.
