With the main event of Dricus Du Plessis V Israel Adesanya in the books. It’s time to rewatch the fight and talk about it.
Round 1: Early in the round, you see Du Plessis use his leg kicks and wait until he sees an opening to do the running flurries that he likes. Adesanya is fainting heavy to see if Du Plessis reacts and is trying to get reads. Du Plessis throws a very nice, snappy lead body kick. Du Plessis lands a big shot with about a minute left with one of his flurries again, but Adesanya is able to shake it off and lands a really nice hook to the body before Du Plessis ends the round, throwing a head kick. Solid round for Du Plessis. His leg kicks were constant, and his flurries made Izzy uncomfortable, which meant he couldn’t find his rhythm. Adesanya landed some nice strikes but spent most of the round trying to get reads. I gave the first round to Du Plessis 10-9.
Round 2: Round two opens up with a good leg kick from Adesanya, which makes Du Plessis switch stances. Du Plessis then throws his running flurry into a spinning back kick to the stomach. Du Plessis level changes and gets a takedown, and holds onto Adesanya until they are up against the cage. Du Plessis tries to find a choke, but Adesanya is able to slip out and get back to work on the feet. Adesanya throws a nice teep kick to the body just above the belt line and starts to land well, with Du Plessis looking tired. Adesanya lands to the body and uppercuts through the middle. Adesanya seems to connect with something on the side of Du Plessis, which causes Du Plessis to drop, but he grabs Adesanya's leg and takes the back against the cage. Du Plessis is just relentlessly trying to take Adesanya down but can never keep him down for a long time. Du Plessis lands some heavy strikes while against the cage. The round ends with Du Plessis still trying to get Adesanya down. Much better round for Adesanya. His strikes were landing well, and it looked like he was hurting him until he grabbed Adesanya's leg. Du Plessis didn’t do much with the few takedowns he got for a couple of seconds. 10-9 Adesanya. 19-19 Overall.
Round 3: Adesanya continues to land well to the body, which seems to slow down Du Plessis slightly, but Du Plessis, even when tired, is relentless. Both guys start to land heavy strikes midway through the round, with Adesanya slightly dazed for a moment. Du Plessis’s flurries are upsetting Adesanya and landing big strikes for him the more tired Adesanya gets. Both guys are tired and just throwing big and heavy punches with both landing solid blows but there’s a clear power advantage for Du Plessis. Adesanya’s use of the uppercut was a smart choice as he landed it fairly consistently throughout against Du Plessis. This round was close not because both landed the same but because it was the volume of Adesanya against the power of Du Plessis. I lean towards Adesanya as he landed more and had some big strikes too. 10-9 Adesanya but 29-28 Adesanya overall.
Round 4: Adesanya starts the fourth, landing a beautiful combination to the head and body, and then sprawls well against Du Plessis. It looked like Adesanya had found his rhythm in this round, as he was landing consistently, and Du Plessis was looking really tired. Du Plessis lands a big left hook, which seems to offset Adesanya’s rhythm completely and Du Plessis then lands a right, which drops Adesanya, and then Du Plessis goes for his running flurry against the cage, which Adesanya turns his head, which allows Du Plessis to land and then he takes the back of Adesanya and gets the choke.
Overall Thoughts: Wow, Du Plessis does it again. Right when Adesanya seems to be doing well and taking over Du Plessis finds a way to win. I find Du Plessis hilarious as he looks like he fights terribly and has no gas tank, yet he tends to do smart things and still be able to fight and finish even when he looks dead tired in the second. His fight IQ is actually quite good, which I think is the reason he is beating everyone, as most fights above welterweight. It’s less about skill and technique and more about athleticism and power, which he has, but he also does smart things occasionally. I wonder what’s next for Adesanya as he’s lost his last two, and he can probably beat pretty much everyone else, but maybe it's smart if he does one more, than retires. He’s done everything he could as a fighter and doesn’t need to ruin his record any more. For Du Plessis, I’d like to see the Whittaker rematch, but with Whittaker matched up against Chimaev, I could see whoever wins that fight getting the title shot, or maybe Alex Pereira gets bored and wants to go back down. It was a solid main event and a funny ending.
