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.
