How South Africa got its first UFC middleweight champ

(CNN) — Dricus du Plessis quietened his critics by submitting Israel Adesanya and defending his UFC middleweight title against one of MMA’s best fighters in Perth, Australia.

The South African had rattled some cages back in late January with comments about being the first fighter to “take the belts” to Africa, following his decision victory over American Sean Strickland to win the middleweight title.

Du Plessis’ comments – after he had also previously said that he would be the “first real African champion” – didn’t sit well with former title holders Nigerian Kamaru Usman, Cameroonian Francis Ngannou and Nigeria’s Adesanya.

The South African had to later clarify that he meant he is the first champion to still reside in Africa, but the animosity still remained in his opponent.

In the much-anticipated culmination of the war of words by both fighters leading up to UFC 305, Adesanya managed to keep de Plessis at bay early with his long reach.

However, a takedown by the defending champion came 3:38 into round 4. Three right punches dropped the Nigerian, who couldn’t come back from a subsequent rear naked choke by du Plessis.

“I came in here to die for this belt,” du Plessis said after the fight. “I came here to take it home. Here I am, still the champion.”

However, in what was an historic UFC event – the first to feature two African fighters as headliners – both athletes came together at the end of their feud.

“I think Africa won tonight,” Adesanya said. “I just had the better man on the night, and I’ll give him respect for that.”

“He’s going to inspire the next generation of African fighters, just the way me, Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou inspired him to become an African champion,” the former two-time UFC middleweight champion added.

After the fight, du Plessis could be seen in videos on social media gifting a jacket, which was embroidered with the South African flag, to Adesanya.

“Izzy and I won’t be friends because, on a personal level, we don’t see eye to eye, but warrior to warrior, after spending that time in the Octagon with him, you can’t not respect that man,” du Plessis said afterwards, according to the BBC.

“To give him that jacket was a token of appreciation, a thank you for this memory. Win or lose, I was going to give him the jacket as reminder of an all-African main event.”

The South African MMA fighter told CNN before the Adesanya fight was announced in July that his confidence comes from being underestimated as a technical fighter.

“Being humble and being confident isn’t mutually exclusive. I believe you should always stay grounded 100%. I know what I have, and I know what I can do,” du Plessis said.

In an interview with CNN’s Larry Madowo, du Plessis also expressed interest in bringing a UFC event to Africa, hoping it would happen on his home turf.

“I think it will be massive,” We’ve had the Rugby World Cup; we’ve had the [FIFA] World Cup. This will be amazing; I’m just getting goosebumps just thinking about it.”

So will UFC be heading to Africa any time soon? UFC Senior Vice President David Shaw said in a post-fight press conference that the organization is thinking about the possibility.

“I think we’re probably closer than we’ve been in a while and there’s significant interest from a few different countries,” he said.

“The Dricus situation is tough, he’s a champion, so are we going to take a pay-per-view there as the same time zone as the UK? We’ve just done the Manchester event so it’s absolutely possible but we also want to make a good first impression.

“Coming to continental Africa for the first time, do we want to do an event in the middle of the night? … The short answer is we’ve got a few different countries that we are targeting, nothing to report right now, but this is definitely a 2025 thing, we don’t want to wait much longer.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.