Israel Adesanya sees something going on, and it appears he doesn’t like it.
The former UFC middleweight champion, who tries to recapture the belt Saturday in the UFC 305 main event, took issue this week with the editing of a portion of the “Countdown” preview episode for the event.
It centers around the tension between middleweight titleholder Dricus Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC), from South Africa, and Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC), who was born in Nigeria, but lives and trains in New Zealand. Du Plessis will defend the title for the first time in Perth, Australia.
In one part of the segment, produced and released by the UFC, Adesanya is shown at a UFC 305 pre-sale news conference responding to a question about Du Plessis’ claim he’s the UFC’s only true African champion since he was born and trains in South Africa and hasn’t left the continent for other opportunities.
When run back against the original press conference footage, the “Countdown” portion has edited out Adesanya’s mention of what he calls the “three kings” from Africa, all former champions: Francis Ngannou, Kamaru Usman and himself. In the edited version, the “three kings” reference is gone and Ngannou’s mention has been wiped out.
Israel Adesanya speaks out about Francis Ngannou being “erased” from UFC history:
“You can never erase Francis’ history from the UFC… It’s part of history, we need to fix this…
I don’t like the fact we’re trying to just cut out a really important part of history. It’s… pic.twitter.com/p7SRUjqyXH
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 14, 2024
The first rule of UFC Fight Club: don’t mention Francis Ngannou’s name…
Here’s a look at the clip from the UFC 305 Countdown episode versus what Adesanya actually said at the UFC 305 Pre-Sale Press Conference.
It’s no surprise, but the UFC’s attempt to erase Ngannou from its… pic.twitter.com/PZpA7UAtSe
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) August 13, 2024
Ngannou famously left the UFC while heavyweight champion in a contract dispute. He signed with the PFL and also had a lucrative boxing match. Later this year, he’ll headline a PFL pay-per-view against Renan Ferreira. But the departure from the UFC was on far from good terms.
The UFC and CEO Dana White have been careful, it seems, to not mention much about Ngannou, if anything at all.
And ahead of UFC 305, Adesanya told UFC broadcast partner ESPN if that’s the company’s intention with his fellow Africa-born ex-champ, it won’t work.
“You can never erase Francis’ history from the UFC – I’ll say that. It’s part of history. We need to fix this. I don’t like that. I don’t liek the fact we’re trying to just cut out a really important part of history. It’s silly. It’s really silly. But we’ll fix that. That’s for later on. We’ll fix that.”
UFC broadcast graphics since Ngannou left the company have shown Tafon Nchukwi as the promotion’s only fighter in history born in Cameroon, when Ngannou was the first to hold that distinction.
Former 185-pound champ Adesanya lost the title to Alex Pereira, won it back, then lost it to Sean Strickland 11 months ago. Du Plessis outworked Sean Strickland to win the belt to become the UFC’s first champion from South Africa in January. But Saturday, a win for Adesanya – and he’s a slight betting favorite – would make him a three-time middleweight champion.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.
