Israel Adesanya reveals who he’s rooting for in Robert Whittaker vs. Dricus du Plessis fight
Israel Adesanya has weighed in on the upcoming middleweight title eliminator fight between Robert Whittaker and Dricus du Plessis.
The fight is set to feature on the main card of the upcoming UFC 290 International Fight Week event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July.8.
Topping the action-packed fight card is a featherweight title unification bout between Alexander Volkanovski and interim champion Yair Rodriguez. Brandon Moreno will defend his flyweight crown in the co-headliner against Alexandre Pantoja.
While the current middleweight kingpin Adesanya will be heavily invested in his friend Volkanovski’s title defence, he will also have a close eye on the Whittaker vs Du Plessis bout, with the winner confirmed by Dana White to challenge him next for his world championship at UFC 293 in Sydney on September 10.
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya fights at UFC 293
“The winner of that fight will fight [Israel] Adesanya later this year, and that fight is targeted for Sydney, Australia,” White announced on his social media.
In April this year, at UFC 287, Adesanya became a two-time UFC middleweight champion by knocking out his long-time combat sports nemesis, Alex Pereira. The bout marked the second meeting between the pair in MMA and the fourth overall, with Pereira leading (3-1) in the rivalry.
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What was next for Adesanya was unclear after Pereira continued campaigning for the trilogy bout after his defeat. Since then, he decided to move to the 205 lbs division and is scheduled to face Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 in July. 29.
During a recent video on Adesanya’s ‘FREESTYLEBENDER‘ Youtube Channel, he dived into the title eliminator bout between Whittaker and Du Plessis and evaluated both men’s chances.
