Media Israel Adesanya says he was supposed to headline UFC 300 against Du Plessis, but Dricus didn’t want it

[Striker Fox]

How many champions have been in a grueling 5 round fight and then turned around and fought less than 3 months later?

Millions!

I wonder though how many have turned down a titleshot because of minor niggles?

 

[Bradillac]

I'm really not a fan of the UFC rushing to make these big fights on short notice or trying to get their champs to fight unprepared. Volk vs Islam 2 was so ridiculous, and such a waste of a big 'super' fight. Let these guys have full camps and promote the fights properly.

 

[danielk104]

Izzy v DDP will be the main event for UFC305 in Perth, Australia which is currently the rumoured location with Whittaker and JDM also on the undercard. UFC Africa is a long way off and cant see DDP getting to sit on his arse till potentially 2025.

 

[RonDante]

Unless he had a legitimate medical reason and literally couldn't fight, I'd be fine with DDP being stripped if he simply refused to defend when asked.

You can't force fighters to fight sure, but at the end of the day they're the UFC's champions. Not their own. It's a two way street between the fighter and the promotion. If the UFC says they need a title fight for a certain date and it's doable but you won't deliver it, then the UFC has every right to replace you.

You think if he doesn’t want to fight in 3 months after winning the belt they should strip him? Are you insane?

 

[JoeRowe]

Unless Izzy insists I cannot see this fight happening in South Africa. And even then I don't think Dana/Hunter will want to do it.

Hunter: Hey Dricus we need a favor, can you to save UFC 293?

DDP: No

Hunter: Hey Dricus we need a favor, can you save UFC 300?

DDP: No
.
.
.
DDP: Hey can you guys do me a favor and book my next title fight on my home field vs your favorite son not named Conor?

Right or wrong I can't see the UFC going to South Africa next purely out of spite.

 

[cmw43]

Unless he had a legitimate medical reason and literally couldn't fight, I'd be fine with DDP being stripped if he simply refused to defend when asked.

You can't force fighters to fight sure, but at the end of the day they're the UFC's champions. Not their own. It's a two way street between the fighter and the promotion. If the UFC says they need a title fight for a certain date and it's doable but you won't deliver it, then the UFC has every right to replace you.

That's outrageous, it would be about a 10 week turn around after having a five round war with Strickland.

What other Champ would do that?

 

[cmw43]

Millions!

I wonder though how many have turned down a titleshot because of minor niggles?

You've just had Khamzat, Islam and Shavkat turn down a title shot with a willing Leon at 300.

 

[Striker Fox]

You've just had Khamzat, Islam and Shavkat turn down a title shot with a willing Leon at 300.

On top of their niggles (every fighter ends up with them after a long training camp), they have Ramadan, and in Khamzat's case also needed more time to get his body ready so he could actually make WW

 

[cmw43]

Tell me you're retarded without telling me.

The UFC has legal obligations to ESPN to provide title fights for their PPVs. It's in the contract. Not to mention what they owe stadiums and ticket holders based on what the event had been billed to them as. If their choice is between making a new title fight between fighters who will fight vs breaching their deals, then of course they should simply create a new title.

They do a version of this all the time when they create interim titles to save PPV cards after a champ falls out. It's not out of the goodness of their hearts or because the division actually needs a new title. It's to keep them from breaching their legal contracts by providing the title fight they needed to.

It's wild this even needs to be explained to you.

It's wild that with the UFC having 12 Champs + Interim Champs you feel that one of the most recent defending Champs coming off a brutal five round fight should be stripped if he doesn't immediately get back in there.

 

[R3us]

the herd mentality is really off the roof with the Izzy hate.

Yeah, sure fun times that he got denied the opportunity to headline 300 because DDP is right.

Are those same people also going to be happy that DDP will sit out till UFC genuinely go into Africa (surely it will be 2026/7 if anything)

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Why would Izzy get a TS?

 

[Lawrence]

Dricus "didn't want it" because he's not fully recovered from the damage he took at UFC 297 and it's a quick turnaround, but that's not as sensational of a headline as omitting the reasons so people can assume DDP is DUCKING!

Agree

DDP is fighting regularly and not doing extended sitting out like other rank squatting contenders or fearful champions.

But he is disciplined about being sure he is ready to accept matches, and it appears to be paying off for him.

He will easily fight twice this year, which is better than most champions currently.

 

[RonDante]

Funny how the jizzy fans are spinning the dricus stuff

“He doesn’t want to fight at 293 cause he’s injured, he’s ducking!”

“Oh, he doesn’t want to fight at 300 becuase he’s injured? Ducking again!”

Maybe he’s just injured, maybe he wants to maximise his chances of winning by not working on Izzy and the ufcs schedule and instead working on his own, considering he’s the champion

 

[NationWideNinja]

As good as this fight would have been as a headliner, with Pereira vs Hill as co-main, I think its more than fair that DDP refused.

He just won the belt, and its unfair to expect him to put it on the line on such short notice against a very dangerous opponent just because the UFC –the premier organization of the sport that has like 95% of all elite talent in their roster– spectacularly failed to create a strong headliner for their 300 milestone card.

 

[markg171]

You think if he doesn’t want to fight in 3 months after winning the belt they should strip him? Are you insane?

That's outrageous, it would be about a 10 week turn around after having a five round war with Strickland.

What other Champ would do that?

Funny how Strickland said he'd defend at UFC 300 just fine.

It's more insane that you guys apparently think the UFC should've had Zhang/Xiaonan headline UFC 300 instead of figuring out another solution if DDP was their only other option and was refusing to do so while admitting he's healthy and simply didn't want to risk a loss there before the non-existent UFC Africa card.

Yeah, it would've made complete sense *from the UFC's perspective* to strip DDP and simply create another MW title fight between fighters who would do it.

Again, it's a completely moot point as Pereira instead stepped up.

It's wild that with the UFC having 12 Champs + Interim Champs you feel that one of the most recent defending Champs coming off a brutal five round fight should be stripped if he doesn't immediately get back in there.

Funny how DDP said he's healthy and turned it down because he doesn't want to risk a loss before the non existent UFC Africa card and will wait however long that takes before defending.

Anyways, you're being purposefully daft.

Pantoja is expected for UFC 301
Sean is fighting on UFC 299
Ilia just won the title 4 days ago
Islam can't fight during Ramadan
Leon's opponents all can't fight during Ramadan, but yes he's available if they figured someone else out
DDP said he was healthy and could but simply didn't want to
Pereira was free but it was unknown if Hill was recovered yet
Jon is injured
Aspinall was free but he could also just unify with Jones later
Grasso is free but would've been another chick fight. She also weighs less than Weili so Weili would headline
Weili is literally on the card as co-main
Pennington is free but likewise would've been another chick fight

The UFC's basic options to headline UFC 300 with another title fight were DDP, Pereira, or Aspinall. Not that they had an entire roster of free champions to pick from and would be singling out DDP and stripping him if he refused. This was a situation where they only had a few options and 1 of them was simply saying he didn't want to risk a loss before a later non-existent card. Why shouldn't the UFC say we'll just make another MW title fight without you then? They have to look after themselves too.

And again, it's all a moot point as Pereira did step up and save the card. They did have another option and went with it so they never got to the point where it was DDP and nobody else where THEN I think they'd be perfectly right to strip him for 2 other guys who want to champion.

 

[blaseblase]

Yes...? I've said all along champs should be more active and it's ridiculous when they aren't if there's no actual reason they can't fight besides simply not wanting to. Plenty of other people are happy to be champion instead if that's the case.

DDP fans are the ones coming out saying he's injured and can't fight. DDP said actually he just wants to wait for a card that's not even scheduled and may never be so won't risk fighting at UFC 300.

You're full of shit since you don't want Jones to be stripped and he also turned down 300.

 

[NicholasJBasile]

That would've been a nice match up, but I'm more satisfied with the current headliner we got. I'd prefer a fully recovered DDP when he fights next.

 

[markg171]

You're full of shit since you don't want Jones to be stripped and he also turned down 300.

Jon Jones is injured and unable to fight at UFC 300.

That's very different than DDP admitting he's healthy and simply doesn't want to risk losing the title prior to a non-existent UFC Africa card, which he's said he'll hold out on defending for as long as is necessary.

Wildly different situations.

 

[Oscar Madison]

“The big fight with me and Adesanya is still on the table,” Du Plessis said. “It’s still there. We can still capitalize on that because he does deserve a hiding. He does deserve what’s coming to him from me. How I see this in my mind is I fight Strickland, become the middleweight champion, and the first title defense is against Israel Adesanya at UFC 300. In a perfect world, that’s how I would like it to play out.”

--DDP

"Perfect world" DDP didn't include South Africa.

======

But this is how it played out -- so stop with the "UFC is making unreasonable demands on DDP" ridiculous messaging.

Just admit he got beat up by Strickland which gave him an excuse to moonwalk his UFC 300 call out of Adesanya.

https://x.com/MMAJunkie/status/1748986477717995758?s=20

 

[cmw43]

Funny how Strickland said he'd defend at UFC 300 just fine.

It's more insane that you guys apparently think the UFC should've had Zhang/Xiaonan headline UFC 300 instead of figuring out another solution if DDP was their only other option and was refusing to do so while admitting he's healthy and simply didn't want to risk a loss there before the non-existent UFC Africa card.

Yeah, it would've made complete sense *from the UFC's perspective* to strip DDP and simply create another MW title fight between fighters who would do it.

Again, it's a completely moot point as Pereira instead stepped up.

Funny how DDP said he's healthy and turned it down because he doesn't want to risk a loss before the non existent UFC Africa card and will wait however long that takes before defending.

Anyways, you're being purposefully daft.

Pantoja is expected for UFC 301
Sean is fighting on UFC 299
Ilia just won the title 4 days ago
Islam can't fight during Ramadan
Leon's opponents all can't fight during Ramadan, but yes he's available if they figured someone else out
DDP said he was healthy and could but simply didn't want to
Pereira was free but it was unknown if Hill was recovered yet
Jon is injured
Aspinall was free but he could also just unify with Jones later
Grasso is free but would've been another chick fight. She also weighs less than Weili so Weili would headline
Weili is literally on the card as co-main
Pennington is free but likewise would've been another chick fight

The UFC's basic options to headline UFC 300 with another title fight were DDP, Pereira, or Aspinall. Not that they had an entire roster of free champions to pick from and would be singling out DDP and stripping him if he refused. This was a situation where they only had a few options and 1 of them was simply saying he didn't want to risk a loss before a later non-existent card. Why shouldn't the UFC say we'll just make another MW title fight without you then? They have to look after themselves too.

And again, it's all a moot point as Pereira did step up and save the card. They did have another option and went with it so they never got to the point where it was DDP and nobody else where THEN I think they'd be perfectly right to strip him for 2 other guys who want to champion.

When did DDP say he was healthy? They were trying to get him to sign on about two weeks after his last fight and he said he still needs time to recover.

He's had five fights in just over 18 months, it's not like he's been sitting on the shelf for years like Jones and Stipe.

“I have no idea,” Du Plessis told Jacaranda FM. “For me right now, we are still busy with some scans, seeing what we can do in terms of after the fight. Some injuries, can we fight soon, is that a possibility, and all that. We have to make sure the longevity of my career is also taken into consideration. We’ve had a very active last year, year and a half. We rushed to get to this belt, we had to take every opportunity given to us. Right now, we need to be smart and defend this belt when it suits us.”

Du Plessis insists it’s “100 percent” better to skip UFC 300 in favor of a full recovery.

“UFC 300 obviously gonna be a milestone event. I would love to be part of that but not if that means I’m not gonna be fully recovered,” Du Plessis continued. “Defending my title is much more important to me than being on this milestone event. The real milestone event will be UFC in Africa and more importantly, South Africa. I can’t even explain to you how long I’ll be willing to wait to make that happen and defend my belt on home soil. That’s history. UFC 300 is just a number. It’s not as massive as UFC Africa.”