Israel Adesanya has taken aim at Dricus Du Plessis after his N-word-laiden rant following the South African's win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in Las Vegas.
The middleweight world champion has a long-standing feud with Du Plessis after he claimed to be the UFC's only true African fighter due to staying in South Africa for his fight camps. And the pair are likely to fight later this year after their heated face-off on Saturday night.
Adesanya is from Nigeria but lives and trains in New Zealand, while his fellow Africans Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou are former world champions. But Du Plessis has argued that he would be the promotion's first truly African champion, which has enraged the Nigerian and led to an X-rated speech on Saturday.
And taking to Twitter, Adesanya wrote: "Don’t back play the victim… Stand on your original statement. Say it with yo chest n****!! I never discredited you as a real African, you tried to discredit three Real African UFC Champions. You started this, and I will finish this! That’s not a threat, that’s a promise. Gbo gbo yin ma ku!"
The last words of Adesanya's tweets are in Yoruba language which translates to, "Hear you, don't die!" The tweet accompanied a lengthy video showing Du Plessis' numerous statements as well as his own visits to the continent and a series of other comments about the rivalry.
"I want to be the first real African champ," Du Plessis can be seen saying in the video. "Born, bred, trained in Africa." In another clip he asks reporters about the three previous African champion's title wins, saying "Did those belts ever actually go to Africa? As far as I'm aware they came to America and New Zealand.
What did you make of Israel Adesanya's outburst on Saturday night? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"I'm going to take the belt to Africa, I'm the African fighter in the UFC. Myself and Cameron [Saaiman, his teammate], we breathe African air. We wake up in Africa every day, we train in Africa, we're African born and raised and still reside in Africa and train out of Africa, that's an African champion and that's who I'll be."
Adesanya took to the cage on Saturday to make his rant, telling Du Plessis: “This is my African brother right here, let’s go n****, what’s up b****? Let’s go n****, here n****. Wassup n****? Yeah, my African brother." Du Plessis replied to his rival's taunts: "I’m African but I ain’t no brother of yours, son."
When commentator Joe Rogan asked Du Plessis for his thoughts on fighting his rival for the belt later this year, he couldn't get a response out before Adesanya cut him off by saying: “I don’t need a DNA test to know where I’m from. I will show you where you’re from. It’s an easy fight. It’s easy money. I said I was going to have this moment.”
