Dricus Du Plessis: ‘Israel Adesanya is the benchmark’

UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis is well aware of the challenge that awaits him in Perth, Australia later this month.

The South African is set to do battle with two-time 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya in the UFC 305 main event in what is to be his first title defence since defeating Adesanya’s conqueror, Sean Strickland, for the title belt in January.

And while Du Plessis has made no bones of his belief that he is a better fighter than Adesanya, he admits that his foe deserves immense respect for his standout exploits in the cage.

“I’ve always looked at Israel Adesanya as the benchmark,” Du Plessis told the South African. “Now Izzy became a champion a long time ago, and I’ve looked at him and always knew this is where I need to be if I ever want to be the best in the world. This is the benchmark.

“He is one of the greatest to ever do it, and this fight for me is going to put me in that position. This is where I take over as one of the greatest to ever do it. This is where my years of building and climbing that ladder is going to a point where I am now the guy that’s one of the greatest to ever do it.”

Du Plessis brings with him to the cage his own unique talents. Sometimes derided for what appears to be a clumsy style, the South African middleweight has proved to be immensely difficult to defeat in his career — as evidenced by just one loss in his last decade of competition, and a perfect 7-0 run in the Octagon.

And he says that he has the cage IQ necessary to blunt Adesanya’s advances.

“He’s a very smart fighter,” Du Plessis said. “He figures out his opponents, and he sets a lot of traps. He does it incredibly well. So for me, this fight is just like how beating Robert Whittaker was. It’s a fight that people don’t think you’re going to win. It’s a hard fight.

“I’m fighting against arguably one of the greatest middleweights ever, and I have to go out there and prove that I am that guy. That’s what this fight is going to mean to me. It’s going to mean I told you I belong here.

“This fight is going to mean that Dricus Du Plessis is now in the conversation of being one of the greatest middleweights ever.”