Israel Adesanya Lashes Out at Dricus du Plessis After Being Hit with ‘Servant’ Dig: ‘Owned Slaves Back in the Day’
Israel Adesanya fires back at Dricus Du Plessis over 'servant' comment, escalating their heated rivalry and stirring up intense debate in the MMA community.
Israel Adesanya got emotional in his latest exchange with Dricus du Plessis. Before going one-on-one in the main event of UFC 305, du Plessis and Adesanya faced off in the pre-fight press conference recently. However, making the trash talk personal, the South African fighter asked ‘Izzy’ whether he would take back his servants with him back to Africa. This was a direct reference to the fact that Adesanya had mentioned earlier about growing up having maids.
Disturbed by the comments, Adesanya broke down momentarily before calming himself. He went on to take a dig at du Plessis, saying, “That’s rich coming from someone who owned slaves back in the day... Look, I am a human being, I am a man. I can cry and whoop your a** at the same time." Well, this was not the only instance of the two having a scathing war of words in recent times.
In another exchange of words, Adesanya initially accused du Plessis of having a fighting style that was flawed. Thus, it was easier for the Nigerian to ‘kill’ du Plessis inside the octagon, exploiting the flaws. But Dricus du Plessis is not the one to be messed with. He immediately hit back at the former champion, saying that in recent times, Adesanya hasn’t quite looked to have had the same energy that he was known for. The middleweight champion further said that ‘Izzy’ does not look ‘ready to kill’ whereas du Plessis was very much focused on retaining his title.
The rift between Adesanya and du Plessis dates back to UFC 290. Both fighters got involved in a heated exchange inside the ring. However, things turned bitter when du Plessis claimed himself as the real African UFC champion. This was because Dricus du Plessis is based out of South Africa but ‘The Last Stylebender’ resided in New Zealand.
Taking significant offense to the statement, ‘Izzy’ pointed out that du Plessis has a colonial mindset. Adesanya also accused ‘Stillknocks' for insulting previous African champions like Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou. In a recent press interaction, the South African champion replied to all the heat by clarifying that he did not have anything personal against Adesanya.
Thus, with a lot of trash talk hyping up the UFC 305 main event, the middleweight division awaits a leader. With the championship having changed hands multiple times in recent years, it will be interesting to see whether the story continues or will du Plessis provide some stability by retaining his coveted title.