Things appeared to be going fairly well for Israel Adesanya at UFC 305, but momentum shifted quickly in the championship rounds.
About halfway through the fourth frame, Dricus Du Plessis clipped the Nigerian-born Kiwi with a series of right hands before powering him to the canvas. Shortly thereafter, the reigning champion elicited a tapout from Adesanya with a rear-naked choke at the 3:36 mark of the period.
“For me, I have to watch it again because I don’t think I was rocked. I think I slipped and I was like, ‘What the f—k was that?’ And then he was trying to catch me as I was exiting,” Adesanya said at the UFC 305 post-fight press conference. “I can’t remember how he took me down because everything in me is always a blur…
“I tried to fight the top hand, and I don’t know what mistake I made because I tried to turn into him, but then he got on my back because I was using the fence, maybe? He switched to a Gable grip, and then I wasn’t able to separate the hands like I wanted to. I have to watch it properly to really see what happened, but I felt great. He didn’t really surprise me because I knew he was tough.”
Prior to the finish, Adesanya was enjoying success on the feet, as he used a multi-faceted arsenal to attack the head and body of his opponent. According to figures from UFCStats.com, “The Last Stylebender” outlanded Du Plessis by a 97-to-90 count in significant strikes in the fight.
“I felt like I was winning the fight,” Adesanya said. “I hurt him a few times to the body and I felt my shot was coming because he kept on reacting to when I was hurting his body. But again, tough dude, strong spirit. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed in myself, but I’m proud of the way I carried myself this camp and I came in ready. It sucks to lose.
“In my eyes, I was winning the fight until I wasn’t. As long as I performed, I made myself proud. I just don’t like the result. But again I’m not hanging on the result. I’m just proud of how I performed.”
There appeared to be plenty of bad blood between Adesanya and Du Plessis entering the UFC 305 headliner, but all the talk about who truly represented Africa was put to rest in the aftermath of the bout.
“I’m not really desperate to get it back. He gave me a lot of respect in there and I gave him his respect back,” Adesanya said. “I already knew he was a fan of me. I already knew he was a fan of me. But yes, now I’m a fan of his. We’ve been in there and we’ve done it. When I’m in South Africa, I’ll tap in with him. I said, ‘Look, we can hang out. But when we have to fight again, I’m going to kill you.’ He’s like, ‘I’m going to kill you, too.’ The respect is always there.
“Dricus is an African champion. But ‘The Three Kings’ will reign supreme. That era right there was what set this off for people like him. He’s going to inspire another generation of African fighters as well. So congrats to him tonight – until we meet again.”
During his post-fight interview in the Octagon, Adesanya made it clear that he had no intention of calling it a career. Although the 35-year-old is 1-3 in his last four promotional appearances, he still has more that he wants to achieve.
“It’s weird how this whole timeline works. It’s still destiny again. This is not what I planned,” he said. “This is not what I manifested, but I believe in the strangest things. Everything happens for a reason. I’ve had situations in my life not go my way. Then later on, it makes sense why it didn’t go my way at the time because of certain things that could’ve happened to me. It’s still my destiny. It’s not about the belt. It’s not about all those things. It’s just about doing what I want to do in this game to close the show. Like I said, I still got a long way to go.”
