UFC 305: Dricus du Plessis hits back at ‘hypocritical’ Israel Adesanya after Robert Whittaker comments
Things are heating up between UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya, after the South African hit back at “Stylebender’s” ‘colonial mindset’ jab.
UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis has emphatically hit back at Israel Adesanya for saying he has a “colonial mindset”, instead labelling him a hypocrite after ‘Stylebender’s’ own comments towards Robert Whittaker five years ago.
The rivalry between South Africa’s du Plessis and former titleholder Adesanya threatened to boil over at several stages this week as the pair met face-to-face for the first time since their UFC 305 main event in Perth was confirmed.
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The animosity between them stems from comments du Plessis made more than a year ago about being the “first real African” champion because he still lives and trains in South Africa.
Meanwhile, other African UFC champions, including Adesanya, Usman Kamaru and Francis Ngannou, are based in New Zealand and America.
Adesanya believes there are racial undertones to du Plessis’ statement and this week said ‘Stillknocks’ has a “colonial mindset.”
Du Plessis shut down that criticism when this masthead asked him about them.
“The words are as clear as daylight, and if you understand English and if you have a brain, you know exactly what I was saying,” du Plessis told this masthead. “How he takes it has nothing to do with me, but here we are.
“It was never about me discrediting him, Ngannou and Usman, it was about me and my personal goals.
“I was referring to being a champion who’s born in Africa, lives in Africa, trains out of Africa and still lives there. It’s nothing else, but it got taken out of context.
“Colonial mindset? I don’t even know what that means. I don’t even know what to say about that.”
In a wide ranging interview, du Plessis hit back at Adesanya, calling him hypocritical after the Nigerian-born Kiwi’s comments directed at Whittaker ahead of their first fight in 2019.
The build-up to that bout was overshadowed by questions of the New Zealand-born, Sydney-raised Whittaker’s Maori heritage, with Adesanya saying ‘The Reaper’ had “disowned New Zealand.”
Whittaker admitted the sledge hit him hard, and Adesanya has since told this masthead that he was out of line, but du Plessis hasn’t forgotten.
“If you look at what he said to Rob, it was a lot worse,” du Plessis said. “I never said (Adesanya) was not African.
“I never discredited him or said anything about where he’s from, not at all. I never even said anything about him.
“But he went directly at Rob, saying he’s not a New Zealander, and he left his country behind.
“It was a lot worse.
“Now he’s saying, ‘You don’t do that to somebody’, but he did what he’s accusing me of doing, but I didn’t do it.”
But, as they say in politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing, and du Plessis admits he’s copped plenty of criticism for what people believe he said.
“There was a lot of people hating, yeah, there was blowback from it,” he said. “But then the situation got explained and people are now saying I’m back-tracking.
“I’m not back-tracking. I’ve said it the way I said it, because those are the facts.”
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