SUMMARY
- During UFC 290, Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya had a huge altercation after the former's win against Robert Whittaker.
- A video from 2016 has emerged where du Plessis was sparring with Alexander Volkanovski at Thailand's Tiger Muay Thai training facility.
Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya’s rivalry has stirred up quite a storm in the UFC world. Du Plessis has rapidly established himself as one of the best fighters in the UFC’s middleweight division. Adesanya, however, has already proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with, being a two-time former middleweight champion. However, the two have had bad blood between them, and it’s from even before UFC 290.
During UFC 290 in July 2023, Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya had a huge altercation after the former’s win against Robert Whittaker. After the fight, Adesanya stepped inside the Octagon and confronted du Plessis. The two fighters were set to fight each other for the middleweight title at UFC 293, but Dricus had to miss out on the fight due to an injury.
Although the two couldn’t fight each other at UFC 293, they have been in the ring previously. A video from 2016 has emerged where du Plessis was sparring with Alexander Volkanovski at Thailand’s Tiger Muay Thai training facility. However, abruptly, out of nowhere, Adesanya crashed into Dricus. Although neither Adesanya nor du Plessis made a fuss about the matter and rather continued with their training.
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The old video has now gone viral on social media platforms. One fan wrote, “Now we Have the origin of their rivalry,” while another commented, “They were Brothers.” Some fans also wrote, “Damn he ragdolling him,” and “Shows how good Volk is!” appreciating how Volkanovski performed against the South African fighter despite being a featherweight.
Dricus du Plessis accused Israel Adesanya of lying about the sparring session at Tiger Muay Thai
In the meantime, Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis briefly trained together at the Tiger Muay Thai training facility. The viral video was also probably from the same time. During his appearance on an episode of Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast, Adesanya revealed how his sparring session with du Plessis went. ‘The Last Style Bender’ admitted that he struggled with the South African while grappling.
He said, “I don’t know if we did two rounds or one, it’s so long ago as well. This is 2014…So long ago, I remember like on the grappling he had me. But on striking, I just messed him up.” However, Adesanya did mention that he had no prior experience or knowledge about MMA and was only relying on his kickboxing skills. Du Plessis, however, had a different version of this story.
Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis have different recollections of their sparring session 👀 pic.twitter.com/aJmpKcPLfs
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) June 28, 2023
‘Stillknocks’ claimed that he was by no means messed up by Adesanya’s striking. The 29-year-old said, “He said I beat him in grappling exchanges. He’s 100% correct in that.” However, accusing Adesanya of lying about their sparring session, du Plessis claimed that the two didn’t indulge in any striking rounds. Lastly, he claimed that Adesanya’s comments about beating him by striking were his way of saving his face.