Israel Adesanya is not going anywhere, despite picking up back to back losses for the first time in his career.
‘The Last Stylebender’ dropped a fourth round submission loss to Dricus Du Plessis un the main event of UFC 305 on Saturday night (August 17) as he tried to reclaim Middleweight gold.
After three closely contested rounds, DDP caught Adesanya with a big shot before taking his back and tying up a tight rear naked choke, forcing the tap. Following the bout, Adesanya spoke with the media and although the result was not what he was wanting, the 35-year-old has no intentions of stopping his MMA journey. He said:
“It's weird how this whole timeline works. Still, Destiny, again, this is not what I planned. It's not what I manifested but I believe in the strangest things. Everything happens for a reason because I've had situations in life not going my way and then later on it makes sense why it didn't go my way at the time, because of certain things that could have happened to me.
“So yeah, still my destiny. It's not about the belt. It's not about, you know, all those things. It's just about doing what I want to do in this game to close the show. And like I said, I still got a long way to go.”
Du Plessis is quickly becoming a puzzle no other Middleweight can work out, with many of his previous opponents stating that he is much more awkward to fight than first thought. Adesanya didn’t necessarily find DDP awkward, but wishes he went about things differently.
“It became predictable and he hits hard but his leg kicks didn't really do any damage, but they were hard. I think I should have cashed in early, maybe, but because I was hitting them with some leg kicks, maybe I should have done more. I felt good.
“My cardio was on. I could feel he was getting tired but again, just strong mindset, strong spirit. He stubborn, so he didn't want to go away and I was pushing him back. He was pushing me back at some point, but I was able to exit nicely and then push him back and again he became predictable with his attack.
“So I was able to just, you know, escape and put it back on him. But yeah, I feel like I still made history tonight, I never lost two in a row.”
There was a lot of bad blood heading into the contest but the former two time Middleweight champion isn’t rushing for the rematching, opting to just wait and see what unfolds next.
“I'm not really desperate to get it back. He gave me a lot of respect in there and I gave him his respect back and I already knew he was a fan of me.
“I knew he was a fan of me, but I guess now I'm a fan of his because we've been in there, we've done it, and when I'm in South Africa, I'll tap in with him. But I said, ‘Look, we can hang out, but just so you know, when we have to fight again, I'm going to kill you.’ He's like, ‘I'm going to kill you too.’
“The respect is always there, and Dricus is an African champion. But, you know, the three kings will reign supreme. That era right there was what set this off for people like him. And he's going to inspire another generation of African fighters as well. So congrats to him tonight, yeah, until we meet again.”
You can watch the full post fight interview below:
