Israel Adesanya thought Dricus Du Plessis was done in Round 4, credits champ for being 'stubborn' at UFC 305

Israel Adesanya thought he had Dricus Du Plessis right where he wanted him at UFC 305.

Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) was submitted by middleweight champion Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 305 headliner in Perth, Australia. It was a back-and-forth fight up until Round 4, when Adesanya felt like the tide was shifting his way. However, Du Plessis was able to lunge forward with a combination before dragging Adesanya down and tapping him out with a rear-naked choke.

“He’s tough. He’s stubborn. That is what it is,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Even if he’s tired, which one was it, I sprawled on him. Was it Round 4? Beginning of Round 4, I hit him with one of the meanest sprawls because he just shot, and I just put his face into the mat, and boom, I tried to kick his body and then told him to get up. (Referee) Marc (Goddard) was like, ‘Get up,’ and he laid there on the ground and took a breath, and I was like, ‘He is done.’ So I try to go for him.

“Even at that moment, he still swung at me, so I was like, ‘F*ck.’ That stopped my momentum right there. He’s stubborn. most guys wouldn’t be able to do that while they’re that tired, but he’s going to throw anyway because it’s like, ‘I need to stop his momentum.’ So he’ll throw. Even if he misses, at least he stops me in my tracks, so I have to reset and then come at him again. It gives him a little breathing space for about a second or two.”

Adesanya is unsure what’s next or when he’ll return but appears to be in good spirits.

“I don’t know, but enjoy me while I’m here, man,” Adesanya said. “Enjoy me while I fight. I started watching the fight, and I was literally like, ‘F*ck, I could go again’ (laughs). I could go again. I still feel good, I could fight this weekend. But like, eh, we’ll see. I just want to get back to the gym, get training again and then we’ll reset, regroup. Yeah, we’ll see.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.