On Sunday, August 18, in the main event of UFC 305, Dricus du Plessis retained his middleweight championship after submitting Israel Adesanya at the RAC Arena in Perth. After the conclusion of the big fight, Adesanya was gracious in defeat, raising the hand of du Plessis in a gesture of respect in front of more than 14k fans in attendance.
In a competitive fight for the UFC Middleweight Championship, Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya traded big blows against each other. In the third and fourth round of the bout, Adesanya started to gain the ascendancy in the fight until du Plessis connected with a left to hurt his opponent badly.
At 3:38 of the fourth round, Dricus du Plessis applied the rear-naked choke on Israel Adesanya, which led to the referee stopping the bout in his favour. This was the eighth straight victory for the South African in the UFC, who kept his stranglehold on the 185-pound division.
In the post-fight interview, Israel Adesanya admitted that he didn’t manifest how the fight went against Dricus du Plessis, which is a rare situation for him in his life.
Following the post-fight interviews inside the octagon, Israel Adesanya raised the left hand of Dricus du Plessis, asking the thousands in attendance to cheer for him. In the backstage area, du Plessis and Adesanya also embraced the families of each other, showcasing the immense respect to one another as fighters and above all, as family men.
Alex Pereira fires warning shot at Dricus du Plessis after UFC 305
Following a successful UFC Middleweight Championship defence for Dricus du Plessis in the main event of UFC 305, Alex Pereira fired a warning shot at him in regard to a potential fight in the near future. The Brazilian took to his official Instagram account to state that he is going to cut his weight back to 185 pounds, to go after the middleweight championship once again.
Notably, Alex Pereira is the current UFC Light Heavyweight champion, but a year and a half ago, he was a middleweight fighter in the promotion. He was unsuccessful in defending the UFC Middleweight Championship in early 2023 against Israel Adesanya.