For the first time since their infamous in-cage exchange nearly one year ago, Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya got face-to-face at Tuesday’s UFC 305 on-sale press conference in Australia.
Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) will attempt to make his first middleweight title defense in the Aug. 17 headliner when he takes on former champion and rival Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) at RAC Arena in Perth (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+).
The heated back-and-forth that happened following Du Plessis’ upset TKO finish of Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July 2019 was a precursor to the some of the word at the press conference, as comments about race and lineage continue to be an undertone to the 185-pound title bout.
