South Africa’s Dricus Du Plessis defended his UFC middleweight title in by far the most crowded weight division in the organization after finishing off former champion Israel Adesanya with a fourth-round choke. Du Plessis has a record of 22-2 in mixed martial arts, while he remains undefeated in the biggest organization, i.e. the UFC, where he is 8-0. On the other hand, the Nigerian-born Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) suffered his third defeat in his last four matches.
“I came here thinking that I would either die in the Octagon or take someone’s life. Fortunately, neither of those happened,” said Du Plessis after the fight, who scored twice in the head of his opponent in the middle of the fourth round (championship matches are scheduled for five rounds). , and then took the visibly restrained Adesanya to the ground, where he easily completed the strangulation.
By the way, compared to how gunpowder the lead-up was, the match itself took place in a peaceful bed, and afterwards they couldn’t make friends with each other. The controversy was generated by the fact that, according to Du Plessis, the former African-born champions of the UFC – Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, Francis Ngannu – cannot call themselves real Africans, because they do not live and train on the continent, as opposed to South Africans. But now peace is sacred:
It is certain that we will not be without super matches in the future in the middleweight division: the Brazilian Alex Pereira, who took the championship belt from Adesanya for the first time, has already signed up for Du Plessis’s belt, the fans would most like to see Hamzat Chimayev from Dagestan against the South African, while the defending champion himself He bares his teeth on Sean Strickland.
