Adesanya ready to retrieve middleweight title from Du Plessis

The octagon is back in Perth, Australia, for a second straight year – and for the third time ever – with a stellar fight card for UFC 305 that includes a middleweight championship grudge match, and eight Australians in action at RAC Arena, on Sunday.

New titleholder, Dricus du Plessis taking on two-time former champion, Israel Adesanya, for the UFC middleweight title is the headline bout in what has been called the best UFC card assembled on Australian soil.

In the main event, du Plessis will defend the title he won with a split decision against American Sean Strickland at UFC 297, in Toronto, in January for the first time.

The South African boasts a perfect 7-0 record in UFC and a 21-2 overall record, and he will finally fight two-time champion, Adesanya after an injury to du Plessis forced their original match-up last year to be shelved. Adesanya is striving to become the first fighter to win the middleweight title three times, and the Nigerian-New Zealander returns to Australia seeking vengeance for his loss to Strickland, in Sydney, last September.

The co-main event presents flyweights, Steve Ercag and Kai Kara-France with not only the opportunity for Trans-Tasman bragging rights but also the chance to become a title challenger.

In the run-up, Adesanya put UFC on blast for seemingly trying to erase Francis Ngannou’s name from the history books. Ngannou left the UFC last year having won the heavyweight championship and obliterated many big-name fighters like Alistair Overeem, Curtis Blaydes, Cain

Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and Ciryl Gane with his knockout punches, or proven boxing at the elite level of MMA. After leaving UFC, he fought Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in boxing and will return to MMA with a PFL MMA fight against Renan Ferreira on October 19 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

A cross-promotional fight between Ngannou, who remains a massive combat sports star, and Jon Jones, one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, may only be the stuff of fantasy, as UFC boss Dana White even appears to be loathe to talk about it to media, implying that they tried to book the bout before Ngannou left.

Recently, UFC has seemingly gone one step further by appearing to remove a mention of Ngannou during a recent promo for UFC 305, on Saturday. Adesanya does not like that the company appears to be erasing his friend from the history books

“You can’t erase Francis’ legacy in the UFC,” Adesanya told reporters Wednesday ahead of his UFC 305 main event against du Plessis. Adesanya, along with Ngannou, and Kamaru Usman, were collectively called “The Three Kings” as all fighters, from Nigeria, Cameroon, and Nigeria, were all champions at the same time. “It’s part of what we’ve done,” Adesanya said. “It’s forever in history, in stone.”

Adesanya said that UFC “trying to whitewash” Ngannou from the record books “is silly,” even if he is now signed to a rival league in PFL MMA.
“I know he’s fighting for the PFL right now, but it’s still history. You can’t just turn a blind eye to it,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll fix it eventually. This is how business goes with the UFC.”

Adesanya continued: “He’s a (big) part of what we’ve done in the UFC. Right now, I know there’s competition between other promotions and the UFC and battles, but you can never erase history. The Internet will always be remembered.

“I think they’ll fix this eventually, but it’s just a lot of chest puffing. The UFC are smart people. They’ll understand and they’ll rectify this eventually.”