Dricus Du Plessis defended his middleweight title with a thrilling victory in the main event of UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.
The 185-pound championship had changed hands in four consecutive fights prior to Du Plessis’s fourth-round rear-naked choke submission win.
Du Plessis, 30, won the title in January with a split decision over Sean Strickland, who had previously taken the title from Adesanya 11 months earlier in what was considered a massive upset at the time.
Adesanya may still be the only fighter with a UFC win over current 205-pound champion and former middleweight champ Alex Pereira, however the 35-year-old has now lost three of his past four fights.
Losing this grudge match to Du Plessis was the first submission defeat of his mixed martial arts career.
The Adesanya vs. Du Plessis pairing was first proposed last summer following Du Plessis’s TKO win over another former champ, Robert Whittaker, at UFC 290 when the pair were first pitted face to face for a stare down. Adesanya was the champ at the time and Du Plessis had become the top contender.
The target date of UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia was not enough time for Du Plessis to fully recover from various injuries and prepare for a title fight, so the organization booked Adesanya vs. Strickland instead and the title briefly found a new home.
Tension between the two African-born athletes had been brewing for more than a year leading up to UFC 305 and emotions boiled over Friday at the pre-fight press conference.
Du Plessis is from South Africa. Adesanya was born in Nigeria and moved to New Zealand with his family when he was a child.
Much of the animosity between the two stemmed from Adesanya taking issue with how Du Plessis referred to himself as the UFC’s first “true African champion” because he is the lone fighter to be born, reside and train in Africa en route to a UFC title, which Adesanya and fellow former African-born UFC champions Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou could not claim.
Adesanya and Du Plessis had several heated verbal exchanges Friday, and at one point, Adesanya became overwhelmed and began crying when speaking about his family.
Emotions did not play a noticeable factor in the cage during the fight itself as both elite competitors were at the top of their respective games and in peak condition.
Adesanya strolled confidently to the cage looking focused, wearing gold gloves that matched his custom shorts. Du Plessis was in green and gold with his nation represented on his attire, and he matched Izzy’s intensity beat for beat.
After a close opening round that saw both fighters have their moments, Du Plessis succeeded on a takedown early in the second round and attacked on a rear-naked choke attempt that Adesanya defended before getting back to his feet.
Despite a height and reach disadvantage, Du Plessis relied on his power and strength to control Adesanya whenever he got a hold of skilled kickboxer.
Adesanya ate some hard punches along the cage but later found success in the centre, landing a spinning elbow, some uppercuts plus clean body punches in Round 3. Du Plessis returned heavy punches as an answer yet Adesanya had more success with volume.
Du Plessis would consistently remind Adesanya that he also finishes most of his opponents. He hurt the former titleholder with a left hand in the fourth round and that’s when we saw his killer instinct.
The reigning champ quickly found himself on top and positioned himself to attempt another rear-naked choke. This time he locked it in tightly and Adesanya tapped out with referee Marc Goddard nearby.
Du Plessis became the first middleweight champion to defend the belt since Adesanya earned his fifth title defence against Jared Cannonier two years ago.
Adesanya’s lone victory since his decision over Cannonier was his epic knockout of two-sport rival Pereira at UFC 287 just 16 months ago.
Pereira, who previously defeated Adesanya to win the middleweight title at UFC 281, left the division after that loss and has since moved up in weight to become the light heavyweight champion and one of the sport’s biggest stars.
The 205-pound champ is scheduled to headline UFC 307 against Khalil Rountree in October but teased on social media following Du Plessis’s title defence that he would be coming back down to 185 pounds “one more time.”
Du Plessis is 8-0 in the UFC with his most notable wins being over Adesanya, Strickland and Whittaker. Pereira went 4-1 in the UFC’s middleweight division and two of those wins came against Adesanya and Strickland.
Also at UFC 305, Kai Kara-France made a statement in the flyweight division with a first-round knockout of Steve Erceg in the co-main event. Kara-France snapped a two-fight skid with an exclamation mark, dropping Erceg with a step-through left hand before following up moments later with a flush right along the fence.
Erceg was coming off a narrow decision loss for the title at UFC 301 in May but will now have a tougher climb back to a title shot after this setback. Kara-France called for the next title shot against Alexandre Pantoja in the 125-pound division during his post-fight interview.
Mateusz Gamrot attempted to overwhelm Dan Hooker in lightweight action but ended up losing a split decision much to the delight of the crowd at RAC Arena, who began their Sunday morning with a 12-fight slate of fights.
Hooker rocked Gamrot with a clubbing left hook in the opening round and did a valiant job defending the relentless takedown attempts of his opponent throughout the back-and-forth contest. New Zealand’s Hooker has now won three consecutive bouts, two of which were by split decisions, while Poland’s Gamrot had a three-fight winning streak snapped.
Heavyweight knockout artists Tai Tuivasa and Jairzinho Rozenstruik both swung heavy leather but neither found the finishing blow and Rozenstruik ended up winning a puzzling split decision.
The one descending judge scored all three rounds for Tuivasa. That same judge was scheduled to work the night’s co-main event but was pulled from those duties following the Rozenstruik vs. Tuivasa verdict.
Tuivasa remains a popular heavyweight on the UFC roster but has lost five consecutive fights dating back to 2022, getting outstruck 344-111 in those bouts.
Brazil’s Carlos Prates extended the hot start to his UFC career and celebrated his 31st birthday in style with a highlight-reel second round knockout of Li Jingliang in the opening bout of the main card.
The rising welterweight talent earned a UFC contract with a win last year on Dana White’s Contender Series and improved to 3-0 in the UFC in 2024. Jingliang had never previously been finished by knockout.
The event featured at least one fighter from the ANZAC region in nearly every fight, with Australians Jack Jenkins and Tom Nolan impressing the crowd with victories on the preliminary card.
Hooker vs. Gamrot was awarded Fight of the Night; Kai Kara-France and Carlos Prates were awarded Performance of the Night bonuses.