Israel Adesanya admits he will be fighting emotionally at UFC 305

The two middleweights stared at each other with ill intent from across the stage for a moment before Du Plessis laughed off their staredown and broke eye contact.

Adesanya's violent vow to inflict damage upon Du Plessis is not his first time making a bold claim ahead of a fight. The Nigerian infamously said he would simulate Anderson Silva's iconic victory over Forrest Griffin at UFC 276 on his YouTube channel, only to fight Jared Cannonier for five rounds en route to a lackluster decision win.

But at 35 and coming off a year-long layoff in which he briefly contemplated retirement, Adesanya's motivation has to be questioned, particularly with him admittedly not concerned with becoming the champion. With the amount of fight mileage he has accrued throughout his career, Adesanya presumably has only a handful of fights left in his career.

His career timeline is only shortened when reflecting on his most recent outings; in none of them has he looked like himself. Adesanya is just 1-2 in his last two fights and needed a deceptive Hail Mary-like knockout at UFC 287 to prevent himself from being 0-3 in that span. 

Throw in the fact that Adesanya has not had a particularly impressive title defense in his three fights before that, and the last time he resembled the fighter who some believed was the best striker in the world was his title defense against Paulo Costa at UFC 253 in 2020.

From all sides involved — Adesanya, Du Plessis and the UFC — the fight makes sense from a business perspective even if Adesanya is blatantly undeserving of the title shot. It is also easy to understand how the controversial geographical debate between the two headlining athletes has gotten beneath the Nigerian-born New Zealander's skin. It just feels as if fighting emotionally is not the right move for Adesanya at this point of his career.