One of the biggest MMA stars to date won't be on UFC 300.
We're talking about none other than former UFC Middleweight Champion and future hall-of-famer Israel Adesanya. There was much speculation made that we'd see the 34 year-old back in action sooner than later in a title fight vs. rival Dricus Du Plessis.
This came after Du Plessis dethroned Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January and the banged up fighter originally threw his name in the hat to defend his title against Adesanya, maybe even at UFC 300.
Of course, a three-month turnaround for Apr. 13 is a lot harder than it looks. When scrambling for a main event for the mega-card, the UFC apparently made an offer to both men to headline UFC 300, one that Du Plessis ultimately had to refuse.
"Dricus, yeah, definitely," Adesanya told Theo Von on 'This Past Weekend' when asked about his next fight. "There's some things that were meant to happen. They summoned me. I'm sure this is out there now. Eugene [Bareman] said some stuff. But, they summoned me.
"They summoned me for 300 and I was like, 'Yep, let's roll.' But, their side didn't want it. So I was like, well, f*** it, I'm just gonna keep [training]."
Adesanya doesn't blame Du Plessis for not making it to UFC 300.
"Yeah, they didn't want it," Adesanya said of Du Plessis. "But they just fought Strickland, so maybe he had a little bit of niggly injuries and stuff, but hey, we all got little niggles and whatnot.
"But, I've fought injured for the last how many fights so that's why I took time off just to let my body heal and it has healed. I'm sure there'll be more injuries. It just happens through training, what we do for working."
It wouldn't be the first time the champ had to opt out of a fight with Adesanya. 'Stillknocks' had the opportunity to clash with Adesanya at UFC 293 but riddled with injuries, Du Plessis decided to wait his turn then as he is doing now.
With UFC 300 no longer in the cards for them, perhaps we'll see the middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya happen in Africa of all places.
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