Neither Dana White nor Israel Adesanya are willing to commit to Dricus Du Plessis as the next challenger at 185 pounds.
Initially, it was expected that Du Plessis would be challenging “Stylebender” in the headliner for UFC 293 this weekend. However, Du Plessis declined the fight offer due to a lingering injury he wanted to recover from first. In his place, Sean Strickland has stepped up for the challenge, and will take on Adesanya in Australia.
During the post-fight press conference for this week’s Contender Series, White was asked if Du Plessis was the obvious next challenger at middleweight should Adesanya emerge victorious. However, Du Plessis was noncommittal on the move.
“You know how much I love when guys turn down fights,” White said (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens on Saturday and then we’ll go from there.”
Adesanya was also asked about this during UFC 293 media day. The middleweight champ is equally as noncommittal to Du Plessis, teasing instead to give the next opportunity to the winner of Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev.
“Dricus doesn’t know how to play the game,” Adesanya said. “Look, you can’t sit on your f******, is it ranking or whatever, and think you’ve got it locked in. This is the UFC. If you look back at the history of the UFC, s*** happens.
“So he thought he was sitting pretty, but he might have to fight two more times before I get a shot at this. But he doesn’t call the shots. I do. I need you to understand that. I call the shots. You don’t call the shot, dickless. You need to understand this. You can sit pretty wherever you want, but if I decide to, I might give [the title shot] to whoever wins between [Paulo] Costa and Khamzat [Chimaev on Oct. 21 at UFC 294], not you.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufcnews/israel-adesanya-wont-commit-to-giving-dricus-du-plessis-the-next-title-shot
