UFC 287 is behind us and what an event it was! With some spectacular finishes and amazing fights, the event seemingly had it all. Most notably, Israel Adesanya was able to reclaim his title in the main event of the evening.
Taking on Alex Pereira in a rematch of their UFC 281 bout, Adesanya seemingly had it all on the line. As such the former champ did not fail to impress, delivering a stunning KO of Pereira in Round 2 of their fight. Moreover, Izzy did not forget to taunt Pereira, even going as far as trolling the latter’s son.
However, Adesanya did eventually give Alex his props and hailed him as a good champion in his Octagon interview. Notably, the only real animosity from Izzy was seen in his post-fight interview. “Look, f*ck I don’t wanna give this n***a no clout. I wanna whoop his ass so bad. I’ll remind you because you gotta choose your words wisely when you speak on people that have come before you, people that paved the way for you”. Further, Izzy continues, “I pray to God he keeps winning. I will gladly drag his carcass across South Africa, wallahi”.
Interestingly, Adesanya points out repeatedly that he wishes to fight this mystery opponent in South Africa or Nigeria and teach him ‘history’. However, Izzy also states that this fighter needs to do a lot of work before he can make a case for himself. As such, Adesanya hopes that this fighter can ‘do work’ and warrant a showdown with him so that Izzy can ‘whoop’ his ass.
Who is the mystery fighter Israel Adesanya is referring to?
For the most part, Israel denied giving the reporters a name for the fighter he was referring to. As such, there are only a handful of fighters in the middleweight division that he could have been speaking about. Thus, many have speculated that the fighter in question is none other than Dricus Du Plessis.
Previously, the South African fighter collected a statement win over Derek Brunson at UFC 285. With that win, “Still Knocks” got up to 5 straight wins in the UFC, with 4 of them being finishes. At UFC 285 media day, Dricus said something controversial about ‘African’ champions. The comments received a lot of criticism from many, including former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
Shut it DOWN 🏆 #UFC287 pic.twitter.com/DUH59g2kxu
— UFC (@ufc) April 9, 2023
Speaking about African champions, Dricus said, “Did those belts ever go to Africa? As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’m going to take a belt to Africa. I’m the African fighting in the UFC. Myself and Cameron (Saaiman), we breathe African air. We wake up in Africa every day. We train in Africa, we’re Africa born, we’re Africa raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa. That’s an African champion, and that’s who I’ll be.”
As such, Dricus’ comments were seen as a direct challenge to Kamaru Usman and Adesanya. Having cleared out the rest of the division and getting back his loss against Pereira, it seems as though a fight against Dricus is what Izzy is looking forward to next. However, should he opt to, Adesanya will also have challenges waiting for him in Khamzat Chimaev, Robert Whittaker, and Jan Blachowicz as well.