Dricus Du Plessis of South Africa reacts after defeating Darren Till of England in a middleweight fight during the UFC 282 event at T-Mobile Arena There has been existing tension between Dricus du Plessis (right) and Israel Adesanya, who will battle it out in the hexagon on August 17 at UFC 305. Picture: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/AFP
Dricus du Plessis will make his first title defence in the UFC Middleweight division against bitter rival Israel Adesanya in Perth, Australia, on August 17.
The clash will be the feature fight of UFC 305.
The 30-year-old became the first South African world champion at UFC 297 when he beat Sean Strickland in Toronto in January.
Strickland and Du Plessis went the full five rounds, and the South African was adjudged the winner by a single point to dethrone the champion.
In fact, it was the first time that a South African had fought for a UFC title.
"This is just the beginning of the championship reign and the Dricus du Plessis era,” said du Plessis at the time.
The new champion went on to say he would like to defend his title against New Zealand’s Nigeria-born Adesanya.
In July last year at UFC 290, there had been existing tension between the pair as Du Plessis had said he will become the first “born, bred and trained African champion", which the Nigerian-born champion Adesanya, who now lives and trains in New Zealand (who was champion at the time) clearly didn’t like.
During a heated exchange after the SA fighter won his fight at the event, Adesanya farcically suggested Du Plessis do a DNA test to find out “just how African he is”.
At that point Du Plessis, had enough and walked away to resume his celebrations.
After the fight, Du Plessis spoke about the incident with Adesanya in his press conference.
“He’s behaving like a clown in there. That’s not how a champion behaves. That’s not at all how a man behaves. He’s behaving like a child. Conduct yourself like a champion,” said Du Plessis
“There’s people looking up to you, and you’re behaving like that. If that sells tickets, good for him. I’ll sell tickets in my way. I’m a gentleman, I’m a man, and I’ll behave like a man.”