Israel Adesanya Claims Dricus Du Plessis Turned Down Fight at UFC 300

Israel Adesanya claims to have agreed to headline UFC 300 against Dricus Du Plessis only to find out that the middleweight champ had turned the fight down.

UFC matchmakers were long in search of a high-caliber booking to feature as the main event of the landmark card, which goes down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 13. While Alex Pereira will now defend his light heavyweight strap against Jamahal Hill in the headliner, Adesanya also reportedly received the call for the slot. However, “The Last Stylebender” claims Du Plessis didn’t accept the fight due to minor injuries suffered in the South African’s title win over Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January.

“There’s some things that were meant to happen,” Adesanya said on the “This Past Weekend” podcast with Theo Von. “They summoned me, I’m sure this is out there now… but they summoned me for [UFC] 300, and I was like ‘Yep, let’s roll.’ But their side didn’t want it. They didn’t want it... They just fought [Sean] Strickland so maybe he had a little bit of niggly injuries and stuff, but we’ve all got niggles and what not.”

Adesanya’s previous booking against Du Plessis also didn’t come to fruition last year as the turnaround was too quick for “Stillknocks,” who earned his title shot by knocking out former champ Robert Whittaker. Du Plessis was replaced on short notice by Strickland, who went on to score one of the biggest upset wins in the history of Ultimate Fighting Championship title fights. Adesanya noted that injuries are an inevitable part of the sport and that they have never deterred him from showing up.

“I’ve fought injured for the last how many fights, that’s why I took time off just to let my body heal,” he said. “It has healed and I’m sure there will be more injuries, it just happens through training. Like what we do for work, it’s constantly something.”