Perth – UFC middleweight Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya have been a bit quiet on the trash talk during the build up to their fight at UFC 305 on Saturday, but it may be ramping up now.
“It’s definitely personal for him because he took a lot of offense in what I said for speaking the truth, and he didn’t like it,” Du Plessis told reporters on Wednesday.
“It was never personal because there’s nothing to be personal about for me. I stated facts, I said what I said, 100% the fact.”
Du Plessis (21-2) was speaking about saying he was the first African UFC champion. Du Plessis is based out of South Africa while Adesanya trains and lives in New Zealand. Adesanya was born in Nigeria and took offense to the champions words.
Adding to the pressure of defending his title against Adesanya is the hopes of South Africa on Du Plessis’ shoulders. UFC CEO Dana White has said that, should Du Plessis retain his title at UFC 305, the promotion will make it’s way to South Africa for the first time.
“Well I’m getting past Israel and 100% the fact that Dana said that, I know he said it before that if South Africa wins a world title we’re going there, but it’s hard. There’s a lot of things that needs to fall into place. We have the minister of sports from South Africa coming to watch the fight,” he said.
“Coming to make sure we do whatever needs to be done to get that fight, get the UFC in South Africa, and in Africa for the first time. A massive, massive goal I’ve had for many years thinking I want to bring the UFC to Africa and South Africa.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Dricus Du Plessis above. He defends his UFC middleweight title against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 this Saturday night.
