Israel Adesanya sees Dricus Du Plessis finishing UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland on the ground.
Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) makes his first title defense against Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 297 headliner at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Strickland outstruck Adesanya to become champion at UFC 293, and “The Last Stylebender” sees Du Plessis resorting to grappling to beat him.
“Dricus is going to try and wrestle him,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “He’ll stand up in the beginning, of course, do his offbeat rhythm, all that kind of stuff. But the problem is he might get jabbed by Sean in the first round and then have to really switch to the grappling because Sean’s jab is underrated. I never underestimated it, but it’s underrated and I figured it out. Didn’t take me long to figure it out after the fight.
“In the fight, I had some other sh*t going on and I wasn’t able to figure it out because I was worried about some other stuff subconsciously to do with me, not with him. But Dricus is weird. You see the way he strikes. It’s so ugly, but it’s effective.”
Although Strickland was able to drop him, Adesanya predicts Du Plessis gets the win. Adesanya was on a collision course with Du Plessis before Strickland stepped in to challenge him for the title at UFC 293.
“I’m going to go with Dricus,” Adesanya said. “Does it go the distance? I’m going to say no. Not that I don’t respect Sean or his skills. The guy beat me, so of course I respect his skills. … I say sub. He’ll submit him.”
Adesanya was surprised to see Strickland jump Du Plessis while both men were in attendance for UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena. Considering Strickland’s unfiltered mouth, Adesanya expected better restraint from him.
“I didn’t watch it, but I heard Sean got triggered,” Adesanya said. “I saw the brawl and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s out of character.’ But then again, (Strickland) can dish it but can’t take it. We all have our own code, and we all do whatever we have to do to win. Some people do anything to win, even if it’s fabricating lies, if it’s taking things out of context, if it’s going after loved ones, anything to get the win. Some people take steroids to win.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.