South Africa’s du Plessis retains middleweight UFC title
South African Dricus du Plessis took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Is‐ rael Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight champi‐ onship at UFC 305 on Sunday.
After scoring some early take‐ downs, du Plessis (22‐2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the mid‐ dle rounds which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30‐year‐old South African as the fight pro‐ gressed.
But a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down which gave du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold which forced the Nigerian‐born New Zealander to tap out at 3:38 into the fourth round.
"This man is the king of getting back up," du Plessis said of Ade‐ sanya, who was bidding to be‐ come a middleweight champion for the third time. "I'm still alive, that's a bonus.
"I came here to die for this belt and to take a life. I'm still cham‐ pion, baby."
Tensions ahead of Sunday's fight at the sold out RAC Arena at Perth, Australia had escalated after du Plessis, in response to Adesanya saying he'd take the belt back to Africa if he won, asked whether he would take his servants with him.
Despite the simmering animos‐ ity heading into the fight, which saw both fighters refrain from touching each others gloves at the start, the pair appeared to recon‐ cile immediately after the contest.
"I'm really sorry that it came across that I disrespected the fact that he's from Africa," Du Plessis said. "That was never my inten‐ tion. Africa would have won re‐ gardless, but tonight South Africa was the victor."
It was the third time the South African has beat off challengers for the competitve middleweight division and second time this year after he won with a split decision over Sean Strickland in January at UFC 297.
Next in line for du Plessis is a re‐ turn title‐defense bout with Strickland at a date to be deter‐ mined.
The 35‐year‐old Adesanya (24‐ 4) was making his first appear‐ ance since returning from an 11‐month sabbatical after losing the middleweight title by unani‐ mous decision to Strickland in Sydney in September last year but said Sunday's latest setback wasn't career‐ending.
"This is the best I've ever felt. I'm 35, I'm doing the right things. I'm not ... leaving," he said.
Earlier, hometown favorite Steve Erceg's was defeated by a first‐round technical knock out in his flyweight bout with New Zealand's Kai Kara‐France. It was Erceg's first fight since he was unanimously outpointed by champion Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301 in Brazil in May.