Oh boy what a day, or night depending where in the world you are, of fighting we have ahead of us. The action will take place in Perth on the west coast of Australia. The main card looks interesting with some fights that potentially can be remembered for a long time. Du Plessis from South Africa will square off with Israel Adesanya from Nigeria in the middleweight title fight. The stakes are high as they always should be in the octagon.
My feeling is that we have a heck of fighting night ahead of us in the RAC Arena in Perth. The stakes are always huge in a prestigious title fight like this one. For both fighters this one seems to be personal which has been reflected plenty of times in the build up to the fight. The stakes are not huge, they are actually enormous in this title fight. There are some serious differences between these two fighters and this match will settle them for now, at least.
Both of the fighters are connected to Africa. The current champion, Du Plessis is from South Africa. Adesanya, 35 years old, fights for Nigeria and was born there, but lives in New Zealand. He moved to New Zealand as a young boy at the age of ten and still lives there. Du Plessis has been trying to get Adesanya uncomfortable the whole week. The main subject has been that Du Plessis is more connected to Africa as a continent than Adesanya is. That has apparently hit a nerve with Israel Adesanya who left one of the press conferences in tears and upset. The challenger and former two time world champion will not have any problems finding motivation for the title fight in Perth. Du Plessis seems to be very much aware how to poke Adesanya. The question is if it is the right move or not and if he is trying to make it all too political.
Dricus Du Plessis, 30 years old, took the middleweight belt when he defeated Sean Strickland in January at UFC 297. This fight will be his first title defence so far. Dricus likes to state that he is the first ever UFC champion to reside in the African continent. That is one of the things that have provoked Adesanya in the build up to the fight. Adesanya hasn’t fought in the octagon for the last 12 months when he lost to Sean Strickland. Adesanya has better length, more reach and experience as well. The fight will come down to who is the hungrier of the two fighters in the octagon.
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