Dricus Du Plessis Chokes Out Israel Adesanya To Retain The UFC Middleweight Championship

After all the talk, all the build up, and all the bad blood - Dricus Du Plessis has officially put the rivalry with Israel Adesanya to bed. DDP retained his UFC Middleweight Championship in enemy territory tonight, when he choked out "The Last Stylebender" in the fourth round of their UFC 305 main event. It was a great fight, and felt like it could've gone either way before the finish - but Dricus definitely proved what champions are made of tonight, and battled adversity fantastically. 

Round 1 was a razor-thin close striking match for the most part, and probably the hardest round to score. Dricus was able to use his grappling to take over in the second, where he tried to apply a couple chokes; then Izzy took control in the third with his striking - and it looked like Du Plessis was gassed! He just miraculously fought through that, through, and kept moving forward despite Adesanya opening up and attacking his body relentlessly - and eventually found the shot he needed to rock Adesanya, and then drop him....leading to the submission finish. 

Adesanya tapped immediately, something I'm sure his haters are already giving him shit for, but when Dricus Du Plessis has hooks in and wraps his arm around your throat for a rear naked choke, I'm pretty sure you know when you're fucked. I won't hold that against him.

They squashed the beef afterwards, and seemed like they had a very respectful back and forth - and despite it sorta feeling like Adesanya was about to retire, he dropped a Jordan Belfort "I'm not fuckin leaving!" before walking out of the octagon....

Dricus Du Plessis vs Sean Strickland II should be up next, and it'd probably be a hell of a fight considering how close their first bout was - but Alex Pereira just threatened to come back down to 185lbs so who knows what'll happen….

Advertisement

We're about to go live to talk about the fights, so tune in if you're still awake and interested in more UFC talk tonight….