Israel Adesanya felt like everything was going his way until a barrage of punches from Dricus du Plessis led to the fight-ending sequence that sunk his night at UFC 305.
While the majority of the action in Saturday’s main event was a back-and-forth war between middleweight rivals, Adesanya was adamant afterward that he didn’t get hurt by du Plessis’ strikes just before du Plessis locked in his fourth-round rear-naked choke. Instead, Adesanya just gave du Plessis credit for taking full advantage of the moment he zigged when he should have zagged.
“For me, I have to watch it again because I don’t think I was rocked,” Adesanya said at UFC 305’s post-fight press conference. “I think I slipped and I was like, ‘What the f*ck was that?’ and then he was trying to catch me as I was exiting. I can’t remember how he took me down because everything in me is always a blur. It’s still fresh, it just happened 20, 30 minutes ago.
“I tried to fight the top hand, and I don’t know what mistake I made because I tried to turn into him, but then he got on my back because I was using the fence maybe? He switched to a Gable grip and then I wasn’t able to separate the hands like I wanted to. I have to watch it properly to really see what happened, but I felt great. He didn’t really surprise me because I knew he was tough.”
The scorecards at the time of the stoppage were very close, with du Plessis up 29-28 from two judges and the third official scoring 29-28 for Adesanya.
It was pointed out on social media and by the UFC 305 broadcast team that scoring the fight was going to be difficult because both du Plessis and Adesanya had great moments in each round right up until the finish.
For his part, Adesanya felt like he was doing enough to stay ahead through three-plus rounds, but in the end, it didn’t matter because du Plessis locked up the submission to get the finish.
As much as he wanted the win, Adesanya acknowledged that he was still proud of his performance because he showed off remarkable improvements and gave everything he had in there.
“I felt like I was winning the fight,” Adesanya said. “I hurt him a few times to the body and I felt my shot was coming because he kept on reacting to when I was hurting his body. But again, tough dude, strong spirit. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed in myself, but I’m proud of the way I carried myself this camp and I came in ready. It sucks to lose.
“In my eyes, I was winning the fight until I wasn’t. As long as I performed, I made myself proud. I just don’t like the result. But again I’m not hanging on the result. I’m just proud of how I performed.”
Prior to Saturday night, Adesanya called his last outing “atrocious,” referring to the lopsided decision loss to Sean Strickland that cost him the UFC middleweight title.
This time around, defeat still stings, but Adesanya conceded that he lost because du Plessis was “the better man” and that’s a result he can live with.
“Last time, I lost my fight in the worst fashion,” Adesanya said. “This is my first time being submitted, another history. Wow, amazing. I keep doing it. I’m f*cking great at this.
“The last one was just something that I wasn’t happy with. This one, I’m happy with the way I performed, just not happy with the result. I wasn’t holding onto the result. I was just worried about displaying the work that we’ve done, and I felt like I did that.”
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