The bad blood between UFC middleweight champipn Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya is what really got Daniel Cormier’s attention.
Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) makes his first title defense against Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 305 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) headliner at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. While it’s an intriguing stylistic matchup with big implications, Cormier admits he wasn’t initially into the idea of Du Plessis facing Adesanya. But after Du Plessis got under Adesanya’s skin by declaring himself the first real African champion, Cormier is excited to see them settle the score.
“You don’t want to say the wrong thing because it’s so easy to offend people on the either side of the coin,” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “When he (Du Plessis) said it, I thought he would kind of walk it back because of (Kamaru) Usman and because of (Francis) Ngannou and because of Izzy.
“He’s not walking it back. He’s standing on his idea that he’s the only true African champion. I don’t know that I’d agree. I think those guys were the three kings of African descent that went to the top of the world. But for me, more importantly than all of that, I want to see the fight.”
Cormier knows a thing or two about big rivalries. His bad blood with Jon Jones was well documented, and he’s enjoying the extra layer to Du Plessis’ fight with Adesanya.
“If you would have told me, Chael, before all of this, when Dricus Du Plessis became a guy that started to become valuable in the middleweight division, before all of this, all of this stuff that makes it so hot, that makes it so uncomfortable, I can seriously say to you I wasn’t very interested in those two guys fighting,” Cormier said.
“Now, though, Chael, I am so interested in these two fighting because there’s something there. For me, I love great fighters fighting each other, but when there’s a little bit extra, that is what draws me in as a fan, as someone that is in this sport. This one this weekend has two of the best middleweights in the world, but they also have that bad blood, and it makes it fun.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.
