Just how badly does Israel Adesanya want to get his hands on Dricus Du Plessis and why? Racially charged comments by the UFC middleweight champion have made it very clear.
“I’m going to f*cking take him to school in the octagon and on history. What he’s doing is creating divide.” Adesanya said in a video posted to his FreestyleBender YouTube channel on Wednesday. “You can’t know your history – I have never questioned him as an African because, yeah, you were born in Africa, South Africa, of course you’re an African. I’ve never questioned that. But who the f*ck is this cracker to tell me who the f*ck I am, who the f*ck Kamaru is, who the f*ck Ngannou is. I’m like, ‘Are you dumb?’ As a product of colonization, you’re trying to tell me who the f*ck I am. You could take the boy out of Africa, but you could never take the Africa out of the boy.
“I never did that to him. I never, ever discredited him as an African. OK, you are. Cool. You want to make a fight? Cool. But the fact that, as a f*cking cracker, to tell me who the f*ck I am, that pissed me off. And that’s why he’s my next fight, because I don’t want to fight anyone else. This one pisses me off.”
Adesanya, who’s black, has been upset with Du Plessis, who’s white, since his original comments in March, when he took a shot at Adesanya and former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman. Du Plessis, a South African native, said he would be the first true African UFC champion since he still lives in Africa whereas the Nigeria-born Adesanya and Usman haven’t lived there since they were young kids.
“Did those belts ever go to Africa?” Du Plessis asked reporters at UFC 285 media day. “As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’m going to take a belt to Africa. I’m the African fighter in the UFC. Myself and Cameron (Saaiman), we breathe African air. We wake up in Africa every day. We train in Africa, we’re African born, we’re African raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa – that’s an African champion, and that’s who I’ll be.”
Those remarks elicited a reaction from Usman before UFC 286 and later Adesanya after he reclaimed his title from Alex Pereira at UFC 287. Now it’s clear that Adesanya’s seething anger has reached a boiling point.
And for the champ, there’s only one way – and place – to settle their beef.
“I want to do it in South Africa or somewhere in Africa,” Adesanya said. “He thinks they’re going to have his back. It’s only the product of him that’s going to have his back. He doesn’t understand who I am. Like I said, he’s created division. I don’t like that. He didn’t have to do that. You don’t understand: I’m here now. I’m going to f*ck this guy up. I’m going to torture this guy.
“You don’t have to create division. This is not the time for that sh*t. You could have definitely got the fight without talking all that sh*t. Well, be careful what you wish for. You got what you want. He’s next. I’m going to f*cking beat him until he’s black.”
As much as Adesanya wants it, whether or not Du Plessis will be his next fight won’t be settled until Du Plessis meets former champion Robert Whittaker in what UFC president Dana White has determined will be a title eliminator at UFC 290 on July 8.
