PERTH, Australia – Israel Adesanya took off his gloves as he stood in the cage moments after being submitted for the first time at UFC 305.
As Dricus Du Plessis’ victory interview echoed throughout RAC Arena, the trained eyes in attendance who spotted the glove removal waited patiently to see if Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) was calling it a career.
But in reality, Adesanya’s hands were a bit sore. That was it.
As he said, he’s “not f*cking leaving.”
During his post-fight news conference, Adesanya reiterated his vow not to depart fight competition. There’s still more of his story to tell. Losing was destiny, according to Adesanya – but so is whatever is next.
“It’s weird how this whole timeline works,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “It’s still destiny again. This is not what I planned. This is not what I manifested, but I believe in the strangest things. Everything happens for a reason. I’ve had situations in my life not go my way. Then later on, it makes sense why it didn’t go my way at the time because of certain things that could’ve happened to me. It’s still my destiny. It’s not about the belt. It’s not about all those things. It’s just about doing what I want to do in this game to close the show. Like I said, I still got a long way to go.”
The lead-up to Saturday’s main event was tense with trash talk centering around the two fighters’ African-ness. After the fight, respect was shown, as the two fighters embraced. Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) even gave Adesanya a gift backstage and their families shared a moment (as captured by MMA Junkie).
Adesanya admitted the loss stung more than others because of what was said beforehand. But he also isn’t fixated on a rematch either.
“I’m not really desperate to get it back,” Adesanya said. “He gave me a lot of respect in there and I gave him his respect back. I already knew he was a fan of me. I already knew he was a fan of me. But yes, now I’m a fan of his. We’ve been in there and we’ve done it. When I’m in South Africa, I’ll tap in with him. I said, ‘Look, we can hang out. But when we have to fight again, I’m going to kill you.’ He’s like, ‘I’m going to kill you, too.’ The respect is always there. Dricus is an African champion. But ‘The Three Kings’ will reign supreme. That era right there was what set this off for people like him. He’s going to inspire another generation of African fighters as well. So congrats to him tonight – until we meet again.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.
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