Former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya alleges that the current champion, Dricus du Plessis, declined an offer to fight at the upcoming UFC 300 event.
UFC 300, scheduled for April 13th at the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada, is expected to be a star-studded event. Adesanya claims he was contacted to fight the new champion, but Du Plessis’ camp reportedly turned down the opportunity.
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Adesanya revealed this on Theo Von’s Podcast: “They (UFC) reached out to me for [UFC] 300, and I was ready to go. But their side didn’t want it. Maybe Du Plessis had lingering injuries from his recent fight, but we all fight with bumps and bruises.”
Du Plessis recently won the title in a tough battle against Sean Strickland and might still be recovering. Adesanya, however, highlighted that he’s also fought through injuries throughout his career.
“I’ve competed injured for several fights in a row, that’s why I took time off to heal,” Adesanya said. “My body is good now, but injuries are part of the game in this sport.”
UFC 300 is set to have current bigwigs such as Deiveson Figueiredo, Holly Holm, Aljamain Sterling, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway, Jéssica Andrade, Charles Oliveira, Jiri Prochazka, Zhang Weili, Alex Pereira amongst others.
