On Saturday night at UFC 305, du Plessis put a nail in the coffin in his long simmering rivalry with Israel Adesanya after he tapped out the former champion with a nasty rear-naked choke in the fourth round to defend his belt and cement him top the 185-pound division.
While nothing came easy, du Plessis showed toughness, durability and unwavering belief that he would finally get to Adesanya, which is exactly what he did. After hurting “The Last Stylebender” with a barrage of punches on the feet, du Plessis secured a takedown and immediately moved to sink in the submission.
A second later with a grimace on his face, Adesanya tapped out with the end coming 3:38 in the fourth round.
Afterwards, du Plessis embraced Adesanya saying the bad blood between them was finally put to bed.
“For me to share this octagon with a legend, 100 percent a Hall of Famer,” du Plessis said about Adesanya after his win. “This man has done so much for this sport. I’m really sorry that it came across that I disrespected the fact that he’s from Africa, that was never my intention.
“Tonight Africa would have won regardless. But tonight South Africa was the victor. It was an honor for me to share this cage with a legend like that. I have the utmost respect for him, warrior to warrior.”
Despite a valiant effort, Adesanya just couldn’t crack du Plessis’ iron chin and while he survived an early takedown and submission attempt, he failed to break free from the same position in the fourth round. It was understandably a heartbreaking loss for Adesanya but he acknowledged his undoing while giving du Plessis credit for the win.
“I already knew he was going to be tough,” Adesanya said. “It wasn’t a surprise. I felt strong, able to resist his takedowns. I just made a stupid dumb mistake on the ground.”
The fight really played out almost as expected with Adesanya displaying technical brilliance on the feet and du Plessis just finding a way to win by any means necessary.
No one is going to mistake du Plessis for a world class striker like Adesanya but he just kept finding a way to rush forward and blast Adesanya with stiff punches that kept the 35-year-old veteran off balance.
In the second round, du Plessis secured a takedown and he battled to get control of a squirmy Adesanya, who just refused to give up the position. Eventually, du Plessis got the back and nearly locked on the rear-naked choke but Adesanya found a way to break free to return to his feet.
There were definitely moments where it looked like Adesanya was going to really hurt du Plessis when he connected with a long punch or a hugey uppercut but somehow the incumbent champion just kept coming back at him again and again. The technique from du Plessis usually involved ducking his head and plowing forward with a huge barrage of shots but he always seemed to find a home on Adesanya’s chin just when he needed something big to land.
That’s exactly how the end of the fight played out with Adesanya seemingly in control at distance and then out of nowhere du Plessis charged ahead and unloaded a combination with a couple of punches stunning the former champion. Once he realized Adesanya was dazed, du Plessis just kept blasting away with punches until he found the opening for the takedown, which led to the fight ending submission.
“I need that takedown, got the takedown,” du Plessis said. “At this level it’s hard to keep people down. This man is the king of getting back up. Nobody can take him down and keep him there. I got a few good ones, landed a few good punches but ultimately I believe this fight was won on the feet. Here I am and still champion.”
While winning the title was a monumental occasion for the South African fighter, du Plessis vanquishing one of the greatest middleweights of all time certainly helps cement him as champion and his resume is starting to look awfully good compared to some greats in that division. As far as what comes next, du Plessis says line them up and he’ll keep knocking them down.
“I want to hear ‘and still.’ I don’t care about the opponents,” du Plessis said.
Immediately after the fight, Adesanya actually removed his gloves but retirement wasn’t on his mind. Instead, he was just dejected by the loss but he channeled his inner Jordan Belfort to promise the UFC hasn’t seen the last of him.
