The UFC announced they are returning to Perth Australia on August 18th for UFC 305, with the main event seeming like it’ll be a middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya.
Dricus Du Plessis defeated Sean Strickland at the beginning of the year, winning the 185lb title, in what was a close fight that has since been disputed by Strickland multiple times.
Israel Adesanya on the other hand hasn’t fought since his title loss to the aforementioned Strickland back in September, stating that he wanted to take a substantial amount of time off after a long run of fighting at least twice a year.
The UFC’s middleweight plan
Initially, it was rumored that the UFC offered Dricus Du Plessis to be the headline of the milestone UFC 300 event against Adesanya, but ‘Stillknocks’ wanted longer to recover from his fight against Strickland in January.
Following the UFC’s announcement of their return to Perth for UFC 305, the 30-year-old began hinting that he has verbally agreed to be the main event. “Looks like someone wants another beating in Aus (Australia). I’m in, I also wouldn’t want to fight the King of Africa on home soil.” Du Plessis said on Instagram.
The middleweight champion originally wanted the fight to mark the UFC’s first even in Africa, but it didn’t come to fruition.
Not only did the UFC announce their return to Perth last week, but they also announced the main event for their inaugural event in Saudi Arabia, as Robert Whittaker will take on Khamzat Chimaev on June 22nd to determine the next title challenger.
‘Israel Adesanya fighting for a title again hurts me’ says Robert Whittaker as he offers prediction
Whittaker shared his reaction to the rumored middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis, stating that Israel Adesanya fighting for a title again ‘hurts’ him. Of course, Whittaker has an unfortunate history with both fighters having lost to ‘The Last Stylebender’ twice and Dricus Du Plessis once.
Despite that, when announcing Whittaker’s fight against Chimaev, Dana White stated that it would determine the next title challenger.
“I think Israel Adesanya fighting for a title again hurts me but I understand.” Whittaker jeered on the MMArcade podcast. “Dricus asked for that fight, he’s the champ he gets what he wants, and Adesanya is a draw. It seemed like that fight was going to happen.”
The 33-year-old also offered his breakdown of how he thinks the fight could go, offering winning paths to both fighters.
“It’s an interesting fight. I can see Israel Adesanya just piecing him up for five rounds.” Whittaker said. “But in saying that, Dricus is as tough as nails and is awkward. I can also see Dricus getting in there and just making it awkward and taking him out of his rhythm.”
Whittaker compared Du Plessis’ path to beating Adesanya to how Strickland beat him in the huge upset title win.
“We saw when Adesanya fought Strickland, Strickland pushed him to a pace and moved him into his space and changed the rhythm of the fight. Adesanya didn’t adapt to that well and I think if Dricus does the same he might have the same sort of success.” he added.