Israel Adesanya’s head coach, Eugene Bareman, has said that a fight between the Nigerian-born fighter and South African Dricus Du Plessis could be in the cards for UFC 300.
During an appearance on The Mac Life, Bareman said Adesanya is willing to fight Du Plessis at UFC 300 in April, and that he returned earlier than initially planned from an injury to start his training camp.
Bareman said Adesanya began training with the idea that there is a strong possibility he could fight Du Plessis at UFC 300, and he noted that Adesanya and the team do not want to disappoint UFC and the fans if he is needed for one of the biggest events in company history.
Adesanya said he suffered a torn MCL less than two weeks before his UFC middleweight title win over Alex Pereira at UFC 287 in April 2023. Despite that, he was back in the Octagon at UFC 293 in September, and he dropped the middleweight title to Sean Strickland in a unanimous decision loss.
It is unclear if Adesanya has been working on the knee injury or something else since then, but Bareman’s comments suggest he is open to being a significant part of the UFC 300 card.
Adesanya has been one of the most successful UFC fighters of the past several years, as he has twice held the middleweight title and boasts a career record of 24-3 with 16 wins by way of knockout.
The 34-year-old veteran has lost two of his past three fights, but he bounced back emphatically from a UFC 281 loss to Pereira to beat him five months later, and he figures to be a threat to win at UFC 300 if healthy.
Du Plessis, 30, became a champion in UFC for the first time at UFC 297 in January, beating Strickland for the middleweight title by split decision.
The South African star improved to 21-2 in his career with the win, and he has now won nine consecutive fights. Du Plessis is also a perfect 7-0 since joining UFC.
Du Plessis has beaten some fairly big-name fighters recently, including Strickland, Robert Whittaker, Derek Brunson and Darren Till, but Adesanya would perhaps be his biggest test to date.