Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis were supposed to share the octagon. However, the latter lost out to Sean Strickland instead.
Du Plessis earned his title shot after earning a TKO victory against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 293. Thereafter, Adesanya went to the cage for an immediate face-to-face with him. But even with the fight not happening, Izzy was keen on facing him at some point.
Israel Adesanya still wants to fight Dricus Du Plessis because it "would be one of the most important fights in sporting history."@MikeBohn's interview: https://t.co/BrC71EKhVI pic.twitter.com/PY2B0lZEPi
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) August 28, 2023
“We’ll see if he shows up but also, I’ll see how I feel. I’ll see how I feel. I do want that fight. I feel like that will be one of the most important fights in sporting history. I mean that when I say in history. I’ll see how I feel because again, time keeps on ticking. Time waits for no man.
“This sport is so amazing and it’s given so many people so many things, and bringing race, color, racial slurs, all of that stuff into it, immediately made me think, I don’t want to be a part of this. That’s why I just walked away. I’m not going to engage in that. That is not the example I want to set for people, that is not what my message to anybody in the world is,” Adesanya
Nevertheless, Strickland truly is one of the best boxers in the division. In his last fight, he stopped Abus Magomedov in the second round. So Adesanya will have to be at his best to keep Strickland at bay.