Israel Adesanya points to an encounter about four months ago which can now sum up his rivalry with Dricus du Plessis.
“There was a South African guy in my taxi. And he said: ‘You know, when you and Dricus fight, even if you win or he wins, I feel like I win’,” said Adesanya.
“And I said ‘exactly’. And then we took a picture, it was a beautiful moment.”
The build-up to Nigeria-born New Zealander Adesanya’s fight with South Africa’s Du Plessis at UFC 305 – the first all-African title bout in UFC history – had been sour.
Du Plessis, 30, claimed he was the UFC’s “first real African champion” – a comment which riled two-time UFC middleweight champion Adesanya, who once held titles alongside fellow Nigerian Kamaru Usman and Cameroon’s Francis Ngannou.
Du Plessis clarified his comment by saying he is the first champion that still resides on the continent, with Adesanya, Usman and Ngannou all moving elsewhere, but the bitterness remained during a charged pre-fight news conference.
But, after a captivating main event in Perth, Australia where Du Plessis submitted the 35-year-old Adesanya to retain his middleweight title, the pair settled their differences before agreeing Africa was the real victor in the bout.
“I think Africa won tonight and as I said earlier, he’s going to inspire the next generation of African fighters, just the way me, Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou inspired him to become an African champion,” said Adesanya.
After the fight Du Plessis gave Adesanya his jacket, which is embroidered with a South African flag, as a show of respect.
He also referenced former South African president and activist Nelson Mandela, who helped fight for racial equality in the country.
“Izzy and I won’t be friends because on a personal level we don’t see eye to eye but warrior to warrior, after spending that time in the octagon with him, you can’t not respect that man,” said Du Plessis.
“To give him that jacket was a token of appreciation, a thank you for this memory. Win or lose I was going to give him the jacket as reminder of an all-African main event.
“It means the world to me that sport brings people together. The great Nelson Mandela, that is what he said – ‘sport unites people in a way that politics can never do’, and that is a fact. That’s what you saw tonight.
African event could be next year – UFC
The UFC is yet to host an event in Africa but the organisation says it is something it wants to schedule sooner rather than later.
Speaking after the event in Perth, UFC executive David Shaw referenced UFC 304 in Manchester last month, which took place through the night and early morning to serve an American audience.
The event in Perth was also scheduled to serve a US audience, with the preliminary card starting at 08:30am Eastern Australian time.
He said a pay-per-view event in South Africa would likely mirror the event in Manchester because of similar time zones in the country and that raises questions for the UFC.
“The Dricus situation is tough, he’s a champion so are going to take a pay-per-view there? We’ve just done Manchester so it’s possible but we also want to make a good first impression,” said Shaw.
“Coming to Africa for the first time, do we want to do an event in the middle of the night?
“The short answer is we’ve got a few different countries we are targeting, nothing to report right now, but this is definitely a 2025 thing, we don’t want to wait much longer.”
