UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya details previous sparring match with Dricus Du Plessis: “On striking, I just messed him up”

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is detailing his previous sparring match with Dricus Du Plessis.

Israel Adesanya (24-2 MMA) is hot off a KO victory over Alex Pereira (7-2 MMA) this past April at UFC 287. Reclaiming the UFC middleweight title, ‘The Last Stylebender’ is now looking towards his next opponent in the Octagon.

The 33-year-old Adesanya has indicated he’d be happy to defend his belt against Du Plesses (19-2 MMA) next.

Israel Adesanya is sharing that he and Dricus Du Plessis actually sparred together in Thailand early in their careers. Speaking with Logan Paul on his ‘Impaulsive‘ podcast, Adesanya spoke of their albeit brief history:

“So you know what’s funny?” What’s funny to me… I remember this. We actually sparred. Hey, sparring is sparring. Also you know what, I’m coming from China. I was doing kickboxing over there, I had no MMA, nothing. I was kickboxing. I had MMA already, but it wasn’t sharp. It was blunt. My jiu-jitsu was blunt, very blunt. So we’re sparring – I don’t know if we did two rounds or one, it’s so long ago as well. This is 2014…So long ago, I remember like on the grappling he had me. But on striking, I just messed him up.”

Du Plessis had been adamant that he intends to unseat Adesanya should they meet in the cage.

Currently Du Plessis is preparing for his upcoming battle with Robert Whittaker (24-6 MMA) on Saturday, July 8th, at UFC 290, taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

‘Stillknocks’ will be entering the cage with 7 consecutive wins, his latest coming via way of TKO over Derek Brunson (23-9 MMA) this past March at UFC 285.

‘The Reaper’ has had 5 wins in his last 7 bouts in the cage, his most recent win coming against Marvin Vettori (19-6 MMA) in September of 2022.

Would you like to see Israel Adesanya vs Dricus Du Plessis in the future? Who do you think would come out the victor?

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