Since Dricus Du Plessis took the UFC’s middleweight belt off of Sean Strickland at UFC 297, the outspoken former champ has repeatedly called for a rematch because the fight was decided by a close split decision.
It doesn’t look like he’s going to get his wish.
Instead it seems that Du Plessis will make his first defense of his new belt against a different former middleweight champ.
On April 2, Du Plessis shared a post on his Instagram that seemed to tease a matchup with Israel Adesanya at UFC 305.
After this post, MMA insider Ariel Helwani shared some details about the negotiations for a potential matchup between the two.
According to Helwani, neither fighter has actually been offered the fight, but it is what both men and their camps want for their next fight.
A Grudge Match UFC Fans Have Been Waiting For
Hype has been building for a match up between Adesanya and Du Plessis for a while now.
When Du Plessis finished Robert Whittaker in the second round of their fight at UFC 290, the win was expected to set up a title matchup between him and Adesanya.
“The Last Stylebender” even entered the cage after the fight to confront Du Plessis with an expletive-laden rant after his win over Whittaker.
Unfortunately, Du Plessis wasn’t able to fight Adesanya at UFC 293 because of a leg injury and Strickland took his place.
Strickland ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision.
Du Plessis finally got his chance at the belt at UFC 297. He made the most of the opportunity, winning a decision against Strickland.
That led to attempts to rebook his fight with Adesanya, who revealed that he accepted a fight with Du Plessis for UFC 300.
Unfortunately, Du Plessis wasn’t ready for the quick turnaround.
Now it looks like fans could finally get to see this middleweight grudge match in August in a very interesting clash of styles.
A Clash of Styles Between Du Plessis and Adesanya
While both fighters have had a ton of success in the UFC, Du Plessis and Adesanya couldn’t be much more different as fighters.
Adesanya is a patient technical fighter that calls upon years of kickboxing experience to find his success.
After 80 career kickboxing matches, he transitioned to MMA and found immediate success. He debuted in the UFC just a year after his last kickboxing match and fought for an interim title just over a year after that.
Over the course of his career, Adesanya has used his patient counterattacking approach to win eight title fights and knock out five opponents.
Du Plessis has had a much more gradual rise up the MMA ranks, but there is nothing gradual about his fighting style.
Du Plessis applies constant pressure to his opponents, consistently forcing them to wilt on his way to the UFC title.
He used that pressure to finish five of his first six opponents in the UFC.
In his title fight against Strickland, he was the less technical fighter, but his frenetic approach allowed him to land the bigger strikes to convince the judges that he deserved the win.
Now it looks like he’ll take on another tough test against one of the most talented strikers the UFC has ever seen.
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UFC Champ Dricus Du Plessis Teases Huge Title Fight for UFC 305