Adesanya challenges Dricus du Plessis for the UFC Middleweight Championship this Saturday
Earlier this year, when Sean Strickland defended the middleweight championship against Dricus du Plessis, it marked the first undisputed middleweight title bout not featuring Israel Adesanya since 2017.
A victory on Saturday will make Adesanya a three-time middleweight champion. That means he would have regained the title twice, building off a feat the great Anderson Silva–who remains the benchmark for all UFC middleweights–never accomplished. “This is mixed martial arts–arts are subjective and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Someone might think a guy like Tyson Griffin was the greatest of all time, and that’s cool. Or you might think Stipe is the greatest of all time, and that’s cool, too. So I don’t think someone saying Anderson is great takes away from me.
“My focus is beating this opponent and winning this fight,” said Adesanya, who seeks to break du Plessis’ nine-fight win streak. “I’ve said ‘F--- the belt,’ but people don’t understand what I mean by that. I’ve heard people say I’m already making excuses. No, those people have never done what I’ve done. I’ve won the belt back. I know how this goes. If I beat this guy , then it’s, ‘Oh my god, he’s the greatest of all time,’ and then they’re all going to be on my d--- again. That’s cool.
A signature trademark of Adesanya’s run in the UFC has been fighting at a breakneck pace. Perhaps that caught up to him last September, when Sean Strickland outclassed him in their fight at UFC 293, winning by unanimous decision and taking the title.
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