Things appeared to be going fairly well for Israel
Adesanya at UFC 305,
but momentum shifted quickly in the championship rounds.
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About halfway through the fourth frame, Dricus Du
Plessis clipped the Nigerian-born Kiwi with a series of right
hands before powering him to the canvas. Shortly thereafter, the
reigning champion elicited a tapout from Adesanya with a rear-naked
choke at the 3:36 mark of the period.
“For me, I have to watch it again because I don’t think I was
rocked. I think I slipped and I was like, ‘What the f—k was that?’
And then he was trying to catch me as I was exiting,” Adesanya said
at the UFC 305 post-fight press conference. “I can’t remember how
he took me down because everything in me is always a blur…
“I tried to fight the top hand, and I don’t know what mistake I
made because I tried to turn into him, but then he got on my back
because I was using the fence, maybe? He switched to a Gable grip,
and then I wasn’t able to separate the hands like I wanted to. I
have to watch it properly to really see what happened, but I felt
great. He didn’t really surprise me because I knew he was
tough.”
Prior to the finish, Adesanya was enjoying success on the feet, as
he used a multi-faceted arsenal to attack the head and body of his
opponent. According to figures from UFCStats.com, “The Last
Stylebender” outlanded Du Plessis by a 97-to-90 count in
significant strikes in the fight.
“I felt like I was winning the fight,” Adesanya said. “I hurt him a
few times to the body and I felt my shot was coming because he kept
on reacting to when I was hurting his body. But again, tough dude,
strong spirit. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed in myself, but I’m
proud of the way I carried myself this camp and I came in ready. It
sucks to lose.
“In my eyes, I was winning the fight until I wasn’t. As long as I
performed, I made myself proud. I just don’t like the result. But
again I’m not hanging on the result. I’m just proud of how I
performed.”
There appeared to be plenty of bad blood between Adesanya and Du
Plessis entering the UFC 305 headliner, but all the talk about who
truly represented Africa was put to rest in the aftermath of the
bout.
“I’m not really desperate to get it back. He gave me a lot of
respect in there and I gave him his respect back,” Adesanya said.
“I already knew he was a fan of me. I already knew he was a fan of
me. But yes, now I’m a fan of his. We’ve been in there and we’ve
done it. When I’m in South Africa, I’ll tap in with him. I said,
‘Look, we can hang out. But when we have to fight again, I’m going
to kill you.’ He’s like, ‘I’m going to kill you, too.’ The respect
is always there.
“Dricus is an African champion. But ‘The Three Kings’ will reign
supreme. That era right there was what set this off for people like
him. He’s going to inspire another generation of African fighters
as well. So congrats to him tonight – until we meet again.”
During his post-fight interview in the Octagon, Adesanya made it
clear that he had no intention of calling it a career. Although the
35-year-old is 1-3 in his last four promotional appearances, he
still has more that he wants to achieve.
“It’s weird how this whole timeline works. It’s still destiny
again. This is not what I planned,” he said. “This is not what I
manifested, but I believe in the strangest things. Everything
happens for a reason. I’ve had situations in my life not go my way.
Then later on, it makes sense why it didn’t go my way at the time
because of certain things that could’ve happened to me. It’s still
my destiny. It’s not about the belt. It’s not about all those
things. It’s just about doing what I want to do in this game to
close the show. Like I said, I still got a long way to go.”