Israel Adesanya‘s next opponent will be decided at UFC 290.
Title Shot On The Line
Following a slew of fight announcements from Dana White on Thursday, the UFC President would top it off with one more. White announced that former champion Robert Whittaker will take on Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290 on July 8th.
This fight has been confirmed as a title eliminator, which will ruin Adesanya’s wish to return in the summer.
“The winner of that fight will fight Adesanya later this year and that fight is targeted for Sydney, Australia,” White said in a video announcement. “That’s just one fight that’s going to be part of a huge international fight week.”
The Lead-Up
Robert Whittaker may have lost to Adesanya twice already, but he’s not still giving up his on dreams of holding UFC gold once again. ‘The Reaper’ got back to winning ways last September where he largely dominated Marvin Vettori to earn a unanimous decision victory.
He’ll look to make it two wins in a row and get a third crack at Adesanya with a win over Du Plessis.
Dricus Du Plessis on the other hand is riding an impressive 7-fight win streak. The South African fighter has wins over the likes of Brad Tavares, Darren Till and most recently TKO’ed Derek Brunson at UFC 285 in March.
The #6 ranked Du Plessis has already caught the attention of the champ Israel Adesanya (for his comments on being THE African fighter), which has led Adesanya to say he will ‘gladly drag his carcass across South Africa’.
Dricus Du Plessis will get the grudge match he so desires, should he get through former champ Robert Whittaker.
