Michael Chandler isn’t counting out Dricus Du Plessis against Israel Adesanya.
Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) emerged as the next title challenger when he scored a Round 2 TKO of former champion Robert Whittaker this past Saturday at UFC 290.
UFC middleweight champion Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC), who was in attendance for the fight, entered the octagon to get into Du Plessis’ face in what was a heated faceoff. Chandler has trained with Du Plessis at Kill Cliff FC before and is excited for his matchup with Adesanya.
“I should probably do a fight prediction now,” Chandler said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve trained with Dricus. I like Dricus. He’s trained with me down in Florida. I think he surprised a lot of people in the way he finished Robert Whittaker. He even said it himself in the post-fight press conference, ‘Look at Izzy’s fights against Whittaker and look at my fight against Whittaker.’
“Simple deduction, deductive reasoning, simple fight mathematics: ‘I beat him faster than Izzy did, so I’m going to go out and beat Izzy.’ Ahh, it’s not always true. I think we’ve got a phenomenal title fight on our hands.'”
Although Chandler is leaning toward Adesanya retaining his belt, he thinks Du Plessis has the physical attributes to surprise him.
“Dricus has a very tall task ahead of him, but Dricus proved to us all that he is that dude and he deserves to be right where he is,” Chandler said. “I think Izzy has more weapons. I think Izzy obviously has more championship fights, which then would give him more championship experience, more championship mentality. But can Dricus go out there, steal the show and shock the world? (It’s) definitely a possibility. With that build, with that talent, I think it’s definitely a possibility. If I had to put money on it, I think Izzy still has the edge.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
