Despite many in the MMA world believing Dricus Du Plessis is the next contender for the UFC middleweight title, both UFC president Dana White and current champion Israel Adesanya are noncommittal, with Adesanya stating that he’s the one who chooses who he fights next.
Majority of the MMA world believes that Dricus Du Plessis is the next contender for the UFC middleweight title after Saturday’s UFC 293 pay-per-view. However, there seems to be some disagreement from two significant voices in the decision-making process. The controversy escalated when asked Tuesday if Du Plessis was the obvious next challenger for the winner of Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland, to which UFC president Dana White gave a noncommittal response. White, following the promotion’s latest Contender Series event in Las Vegas exclaimed, “You know how much I love when guys turn down fights,” He added, “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens on Saturday and then we’ll go from there.”
Adesanya, aged 34, is set to face off against Strickland in the main event of UFC 293, which is to be held at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. This bout is the first defense of Adesanya’s belt after an impressive revenge knockout of Alex Pereira in April. Earlier, both the UFC and Adesanya had targeted a grudge match against Du Plessis for the event, but the South African fighter was unable to attend due to a quick turnaround time following his breakthrough win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July. Du Plessis stunned the world with a second round knockout of Whittaker, marking the first time the former champion was defeated by a middleweight other than Adesanya since Whittaker’s entry into the division in 2014.
Du Plessis is widely acknowledged as the second-best middleweight in the world, trailing only behind Adesanya. He boasts an impressive record of 6-0 with five stoppages since his UFC debut in 2020 and has an ongoing rivalry with Adesanya that has garnered much attention. While the inevitable face-off between the two is expected to be one of the most anticipated bouts, Adesanya understands White’s point of view. During the UFC 293 media day, Adesanya said, “Dricus doesn’t know how to play the game,” He further elaborated, “Look, you can’t sit on your f****** ranking and think you’ve got it locked in…So he thought he was sitting pretty, but he might have to fight two more times before I get a shot at this. But he doesn’t call the shots. I do.” He even hinted at the possibility of giving the title shot to the winner of the match between Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev.