Izzy Out? ‘When You See Me, You’ll See Me’

Israel Adesanya lost a pivotal fight for the middleweight belt on Saturday night against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305, leaving him in a bit of a limbo after years of back-to-back title fights.

Adesanya and Du Plessis went to war for four rounds, with “Stylebender” hitting “Stillknocks” with a lot of sharp body shots and kicks while the South African champion countered with his usual brawny blitzes. With both men tiring in the later rounds, it was Dricus who had to gas in the tank to take Izzy’s back during a wild exchange, securing a rear naked choke for the win (watch the highlights here).

For all the hype and hatred between the two leading up to the fight, there was a lot of respect on display in the cage after the bout ended. And during the UFC 305 post-fight press conference, Adesanya seemed at peace with how things went.

“I’m not really desperate to get it back,” he said of the loss to Du Plessis. “He gave me a lot of respect in there, and I gave him his respect back. And I already knew he was a fan of me, but I guess now I’m a fan of his. Because we’ve been in there, we’ve done it. And when I’m in South Africa, I’ll tap him.”

Both Adesanya and Du Plessis made it clear that what we witnessed after the fight was mutual respect, not the beginning of a proper friendship.

“I said, ‘Look, we can hang out. But just so you know, when we have to fight again, I’m gonna kill you.’” Adesanya said. “He’s like, ‘I’m gonna kill you too.’ So yeah. The respect is always there. And Dricus is an African champion. But the Three Kings will reign supreme. That era right there was what set things up for people like him. And he’s gonna inspire another generation of African fighters as well. So congrats to him tonight. Yeah.”

“Til we meet again.”

On that front, Adesanya confirmed there was no thought of retiring in the cage despite a scary moment when he took his gloves off after the fight.

“My hands aren’t broken, not even close, just a little bit sore. So that’s why I took the gloves off,” he explained. “But nothing about retiring. No. No. I told you, I’m not f—ing leaving. I’m not f—ing leaving until I wanna leave.”

Adesanya seemed unbothered by the defeat, which was in contrast to his previous loss to Sean Strickland that prompted him to take the longest break in his UFC career.

“The last one was just something I wasn’t happy with,” he said. “This one, I’m happy with the way I performed, just not happy with the result. But I wasn’t holding on to the result. I was just worried about displaying the work we’ve done, and I felt like I did that.”

“So yeah, you’ll see me again when you see me again. I’m not like, ‘Oh, I need to do this. I need to go fight for the belt again. I need to—,’ you know, none of that. I’m just doing me. I just wanna keep getting better. I’m gonna get better at my my grappling … Even my striking, I’m gonna get better at that again. And then when you see me, you’ll see me.”

As for when that’ll be?

“It’s not gonna be, like, you’ll see me in three months like you normally do. You’ll see me when you see me again. So until then join me while I’m here, because you will miss me when I’m gone.”