"Real African Debate" Set The Israel Adesanya vs Dricus du Plessis UFC 305 Press Conference

UFC 305 will headline a middleweight championship bout between the reigning champion Dricus du Plessis and former champion Israel Adesanya, where the DDP will defend his title for the first time. DDP defeated Sean Strickland in an intense five-round battle at UFC 298 via a split decision to claim the middleweight title. Prior to his fight against Sean Strickland, he was scheduled to fight Israel Adesanya in a title fight after their heated “Real African Debate” in which DDP said that “laststylebender” is not a real African champion and he will become the first true African Champion. The fight between these two couldn’t come to fruition earlier as DDP pulled out due to an injury.

The two are now scheduled to fight at UFC 305, and the first press conference of the fighting event was intense. The two went back and forth on the “True African Champion” remarks, where Israel Adesanya threw verbal jabs at the reigning champion, claiming that the latter discredited not just him but former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou.

He tried to discredit the three kings and say that he is the real true African Champion, and I was like, ‘It’s a weird mindset, bro, like, he came into the UFC, I knew who he was a little bit. But I didn’t go over the f*** this fake dude coming in.’ I just, so cool, he’s not African in the UFC. But then him discrediting me, Francis Ngannou, Kamaru Usman, that took me off a little bit. So, that’s what started this. But again, I’ll finish it.”
Israel Adesanya said

Dricus du Plessis replied that he didn’t discredit anybody and emphasized the facts about his life and training by living in his home in South Africa, not anywhere else.

And as far as discrediting, never discredited anybody. Stating facts. Where do I reside? What’s my postal code? Where do I train? Where do I live, where was I born? In South Africa. Still there. Still training. And I want this belt from South Africa. I didn’t try anywhere else. That was the only thing I stated. So, never discredited anybody. Quite frankly, I don’t really care about how it rubbed him off the wrong way. I don’t, I don’t care.”
Dricus du Plessis replied