Israel Adesanya won’t let go of what Dricus Du Plessis said about becoming the first UFC African champion.
Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) argued that because he was born, raised, and trained out of South Africa, that makes him the first true UFC champion out of Africa. Nigeria’s Adesanya, Cameroon’s Francis Ngannou, and Nigeria’s Kamaru Usman all won UFC titles before Du Plessis – but did it residing outside of Africa.
Du Plessis’ comments also enraged UFC middleweight Abdul Razak Alhassan, who was born in Ghana. Du Plessis stands by his comments, and Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) vows to make him pay when they square off in their title fight Saturday in the UFC 305 main event.
“I just want him to take accountability for his remarks,” Adesanya told TMZ Sports. “I’m also glad my friend Abdul Razak (Alhassan) said it before his fight about three weeks ago, saying, ‘I respect Dricus, but he’s a b*tch for what he said.’ He’s a b*tch because Dricus is saying, ‘I trained in Africa. I do this in Africa,’ and people like Razak and myself (are out there) who are forced to flee our own country because of a better opportunity.
“He’ll never understand that because he lives behind the f*cking gates of his privileged life in South Africa, and he’s able to do that there. So someone like Francis, who had to cross the desert to go overseas to go train – if you know Francis’ story, you can’t call him not a real African champion because he didn’t train in Africa. Like, bro – are you f*cking kidding? The guy got sent back out to the desert six, seven times to go die, and he survived.”
Adesanya says he, Ngannou and Usman are the reason why Du Plessis had the opportunity to become champion.
“Even without Francis being champion, without myself being champion, without Kamaru being champion, he would have never been champion,” Adesanya said. “We paved the way for him, and then he comes out there and tries to take it all for himself. I wonder where he got that from. What kind of mindset is that, like, ‘Oh, I see this and I want it all for myself’?
“What kind of mindset is it that you see three African champions and you’re going to be the fourth one? You could have said it would be a great honor to be out of the legends of African champions that have been in the UFC. He tries to take it all for himself. That’s a colonist mindset. He doesn’t understand the error of his ways, but I will show him the way. … Dricus will always be an African champion, but he’ll never be one of the three kings.”
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