No hiding place for Du Plessis, Israel Adesanya vows

Nigeria-born, New Zealand-based two time UFC Middleweight champion and MMA megastar, Israel Adesanya, has vowed to regain his title against current Champion, Dricus Du Plessis, as they clash in the early hours of Sunday.

With his mind and body reset after a lengthy layoff, Adesanya is looking to ‘’smoke’’ Dricus Du Plessis and reach new heights of his career. He also details a newfound love for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and gave his support to his coach, Craig Jones, who will be competing in the upcoming CJI event this year.

According to www.stake.com/blog/israel-adesanya-ufc-305-exclusive-interview, Adesanya said his mind and body have been reset and he is ready to ‘smoke’ Dricus Du Plessis.

“I’m too lethal for ‘vulnerable’ Dricus Du Plessis. I will deliver a knockout on Sunday. I need to prove to the doubters that I am still ‘The Israel Adesanya.’

Speaking further, he said: “This is the longest layoff in my whole fighting career. I kind of got forced into taking a break because my body needed it. Not because of the fights, but the training camps. My mind, body and spirit needed it, and I’m glad I got the break I needed and reset myself, reaffirm myself. Let’s go!’

Adesanya said: “My team is everything you need. I’m a friendly guy and a lot of the people I connect with feel like they’ve known me for years, but my team are the ones who will always be around me because they understand me. I’ve been here before, I’ve lost before and I know how things change, so for me, the defeat didn’t shake me. You watch this, on August 17, I’m going to smoke him. I’ve been here before, but I’ll play the game a little differently this time.

“Dricus Du Plessis is a guy who fights the way he fights. He gets a lot of success, but it leaves him very vulnerable. When you fight a guy who is very precise and lethal like me, come on…

“The highlights will always be there. The way I fight will always produce highlights, and those are nice bonuses, but I don’t look for them, they just show up.

“I think he’s going to shoot straight away. I doubt he’ll want to strike with me for too long. This is something that people always say, but I’ve shown before that I can wrestle too. It might not be how everyone else wrestles, but I can wrestle too, that’s why I ended up becoming world champion.

“It’s not so much about the belt. For me it’s when people doubt my skills after what I’ve done in this game and the classics that I’ve made. The main driving force is for me proving to myself that I am still me, I am still Israel Adesanya, and what drives me is proving me, to me,” Adesanya stated.