Dricus Du Plessis had beef with Israel Adesanya for weeks before their Saturday faceoff.
But now the heat really is going to be turned up.
After his dominant win over former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) punched his ticket to a title fight with Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC). Then things got ugly.
Adesanya was born in Nigeria in Africa, but lives and trains in New Zealand. Du Plessis was born in South Africa and has lived there his whole life. That fact is what has caused tension between the two.
That boiled over Saturday when the UFC brought Adesanya into the cage for a faceoff with Du Plessis. Among the trash talk from Adesanya was around a dozen uses of the N-word directed at Du Plessis, apparently to mock him for his past comments about being African.
When UFC president Dana White was asked after UFC 290 about concerns that his champion brought race into the faceoff to end a pay-per-view with his repeated use of the N-word, White said he didn’t care and that it wasn’t racial.
The whole thing set up what could be a very heated buildup to a fight likely to happen at UFC 293 in Sydney in September.
MMA Junkie’s “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Farah Hannoun, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Mike Bohn joined host “Gorgeous” George Garcia to talk about the matchup, the tension and the controversy.
Check out their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s complete episode of “Spinning Back Clique” below.
