Israel Adesanya urges Dricus du Plessis to prepare for eventual UFC fight: ‘I’ll tell you, he’s scared of me’
Still expected to make his return to the Octagon at UFC 293 in September, undisputed middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has urged surging rival, Dricus du Plessis to continue preparation for a future clash – claiming the South African is “scared” of him most definitely.
Adesanya, a two-time and current undisputed middleweight champion under the banner of the UFC, has been sidelined since he took headlining honors at UFC 287 back in April in Miami, Florida, defeating arch-rival and recent UFC 291 winner, Alex Pereira with a stunning second round KO.
As for du Plessis, the Pretoria native most recently turned in a spectacular career-highlight win over former champion and common-foe, Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 during International Fight Week last month, earning the number one rank in the division.
Slated to return atop a UFC 293 card on September 9. in Sydney, Australia, Adesanya, who claims du Plessis will miss the event due to injury, has been linked to a title defense against either Sean Strickland, or a rematch with contender, Jared Cannonier.
Israel Adesanya claims Dricus du Plessis is “scared” of him
Expecting an eventual clash with promotional-perfect challenger, du Plessis, Adesanya has urged the former to continue preparing for a showdown, while claiming he is most certainly scared of him.
“Now, he (Dricus du Plessis) doesn’t wanna fight,” Israel Adesanya said on The Halfcast Podcast. “Even after [UFC 290], he’s like, ‘Oh, bro, all you had to do was put some gloves on, we could have got it on right there.’ B*tch ass, f*ck you wouldn’t have. ‘Cause guess what, he didn’t want it… People were like, ‘Oh, he’s so classy walking away. He’s so (classy).’ I’m like, ‘Bro, he didn’t event walk away. He felt me.’ He didn’t wanna feel me.”
“He’s not a scared man, he’s a tough dude,” Israel Adesanya explained. “He’s very crafty, and he’s got a good team behind him, (a) smart team. I don’t think he’s a scared man, but I’ll tell you he’s scared of me. You know when you look in someone’s eyes, you just know straight away. He didn’t call me to the cage, I stepped in the cage myself. I didn’t even see him call me… I stepped into the cage because I made this sh*t happen. This motherf*cker – I hope, I really was hoping he’d f*cking step up. But he’s a b*tch, and I’ll tell you right now. Keep training. Keep training. I’ve got something for you’re ass, so keep training.” (Transcribed by MMA News)
