Israel Adesanya ‘Heartbroken’: Dreams of Headlining UFC 300 Shattered by Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill Fight

Allan Binoy | 13/04/2024
UFC Veteran Suggests ‘Innocent’ Israel Adesanya Was 'Set Up' in Road Rage Drama

Israel Adesanya’s dreams of headlining UFC 300 went down the drain. The former UFC Middleweight Champion has not fought since his loss to Sean Strickland. In his return fight, he will look to win back the title he lost. However, he wanted to do it at the historic card that will take place this weekend. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be for the New Zealand native. Now he will just have to watch on as a spectator.

Israel Adesanya will look to return to the octagon this year. The current middleweight champion wants to fight Adesanya next and there is a lot of beef between them. ‘The Last Stylebender’ appeared on The MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani on YouTube recently. While on the show, he spoke about how ‘heartbroken’ he was. ‘Izzy’ stated,

“I was heartbroken coz I thought it was us…..and Tim was holding out coz he and Hunter and Dana were going back and forth…..I was ready, I thought it was done, I was training.”

Thus, it looks like Alex Pereira got what Israel Adesanya wanted, yet again. Fighting for the title back in UFC 281, Pereira defeated Adesanya to grab his belt. ‘The Last Stylebender’ will now have to watch his kickboxing foe grab all the attention at UFC 300. Adesanya also revealed that he had begun training for the event while he was in Switzerland. He already got in around 4 weeks of training in preparation.

However, now that the UFC 300 was out of picture, the former UFC Middleweight Champion then went on to talk about Dricus Du Plessis turning down a fight for UFC 300.

Israel Adesanya talks about Dricus Du Plessis turning down a UFC 300 main event

Israel Adesanya called out the current champions claiming they are not “built like us.” The New Zealand native wanted Dricus Du Plessis at the UFC 300. However, his potential opponent turned down the fight because he was not ready or fit to fight after his UFC 297 bout. While in conversation with Ariel Helwani in a clip posted on X by Championship Rounds, Adesanya opined,

“They’re not built like us… myself, Alex Volkanovski, Kamaru Usman. When we were champions, f*ck it, just fight. F*ck the belt.”

Israel Adesanya claims that the current champions like Dricus Du Plessis care too much about the belt. Unlike himself, Alexander Volkanovski, and Kamaru Usman. Adesanya also stated that when they were champions, they would fight anyone, regardless of the belt.

Post Edited By: Debmallya Chakraborty
Alex Pereira Israel Adesanya Jamahal Hill

About the author

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Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

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