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UFC 305 took place at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia and was headlined by a middleweight title bout between champion Dricus du Plessis and former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya.

The championship bout was du Plessis’ first title defense. He captured the championship in January by defeating Sean Strickland via split decision in the UFC 297 main event. Adesanya lost the belt to Strickland in his last outing last September.  

The two did touch gloves despite the intense buildup to the fight.  Adesanya inched forward switching stances.  Du Plessis landed first with a leg kick.  Adesanya answered with a jab.  Du Plessis rushed forward but Adesanya kept his guard high.  Adesanya delivered a hard leg kick.  Du Plessis rushed forward but Adesanya moved away.  Du Plessis landed a right hand.  Adesanya stepped in with a knee to the body.  Adesanya landed a leg kick.  Du Plessis switched stances.  Du Plessis went high with a kick that was blocked.  He changed levels and looked for a takedown.  Adesanya defended the attempt and circled away.  

Adesanya delivered a leg kick tot he body.  Du Plessis pressed forward and connected with a left hand.  Adesanya found the mark with a right hand.  Du Plessis responded with a leg kick.  Du Plessis connected with a right hand.  Adesanya shook his head as if it didn’t land clean.  Du Plessis looked for a left high kick.  Adesanya delivered a hard right hand to the body.  Du Plessis went high with a left kick that was blocked at the bell.  MMAWeekly scored the round 10-9 for du Plessis.

Adesanya opened the second round with a kick to the body.  Du Plessis pressed forward with back-kick to the body.  Adesanya targeted the body again with a kick.  Adesanya moved forward and du Plessis changed levels and took him down.  Adesanya tried to stand but Du Plessis took his back.  Du Plessis looked for a rear-naked choke.  Adesanya defends the attempt and scrambles to his feet.  

Adesanya landed an elbow on the inside.  Adesanya picked up the pace.  Du Plessis fired back and dove for a leg.  He briefly got Adesanya to the ground.  Du Plessis landed a couple of short hands and continued to work for a takedown.  Adesanya worked his way to his feet but du Plessis remained on him.  Du Plessis tripped Adesanya back to the canvas.  Du Plessis delivered left hands.  Adesanya nearly got free but du Plessis continued to look for a takedown.  MMAWeekly scored the round 10-9 for du Plessis.  

Adesanya continued to target the body of du Plessis in the third.  Adesanya landed a straight left hand.  Adesanya landed a hard right hand to the body.  Du Plessis responded with a right hand.  Adesanya fired off a head kick that was partially blocked.  Adesanya landed a leg kick and du Plessis rushed forward but missed with a combination.  Adesanya continued to land to the body.  Du Plessis connected with a right hand.  Adesanya landed a nasty elbow.  Du Plessis answered with a heavy left hand.  Du Plessis pressed forward with a combination.  He looked for a takedown but Adesanya defended it.  Adesanya connected with a right hand.  Adesanya tripped but got to his feet.  Du Plessis landed a left hand.  Adesanya reacted with an uppercut.  

Both men look exhausted.  They traded right hands.  Adesanya dug a combination to the body.  Du Plessis drove forward with a right hand.  MMAWeekly scored the round 10-9 for du Plessis.  

Adesanya inched forward behind his jab to start the fourth round.  Adesanya landed an uppercut.  Du Plessis immediately went for a takedown. Adesanya sprawled and made the champion stand back up.  Adesanya connected with a right hand followed by a kick to the body.  Adesanya connected with an uppercut.  Du Plessis looked to have slowed.  

Du Plessis landed a counter right hand after taking a jab.  Du Plessis delivered a kick to then body and began moving forward.  Adesanya met him with a combination.  Adesanya connected with a check hook.  Du Plessis landed a left hook that made Adesanya retreat.  Du Plessis rushed forward with a right hand that knocked Adesanya down.  Du Plessis pressed forward and landed another shot.  He took Adesanya’s back and locked on a rear-naked choke.  Adesanya tapped out.  The official time of the submission was 3:38 of Round 4.  

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Magomed Ankalaev faces Aleksandar Rakic just three weeks after Alex Pereira defends his UFC light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree at UFC 307, and he isn’t happy to see Pereira claim he turned down a shot at gold.

Pereira recently posted a video on his YouTube channel claiming that he expected to face Ankalaev next, but the Russian “didn’t want to fight me.” It didn’t take long for Ankalaev to take to social media to refute the claims and say he was never offered the opportunity.

“@AlexPereiraUFC you are a liar. You said I turned fire down against you @DanaWhite, @MickMaynard2 never offer me a fight against you. I’m gonna make you eat your word after I handle my business.”

Pereira vs. Rountree headlines UFC 307 on Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City, while Ankalaev draws Rakic on Oct. 26 at UFC 208 in Abu Dhabi.

In his video, Pereira claimed he “always wanted to fight against Ankalaev” after defending his 205-pound belt with a knockout over Jiri Prochazka at UFC 300, however the one-time title challenger “has made things difficult.”

“I don’t know the reason, if it was the location, if he didn’t want to fight,” Pereira said of Ankalaev. “He isn’t the champion, he can’t pick anything. It’s the opportunity that shows up and he didn’t want it. He has his reasoning, I don’t know what it is. But I came here to tell you I’m not scared of anyone. Everyone knows my history and everything I’ve done, not only in MMA, but in kickboxing as well. It’s obvious that I want to fight this guy.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Caio Borralho made a statement on Saturday night when he defeated Jared Cannonier in the main event of UFC Vegas 96, and did so without using his high-level grappling chops. After the win, Borralho called out middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis.

Did he waste the callout, potentially taking another big fight off the table?

On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses what could be next for the surging middleweight contender after winning his first UFC main event. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Tabatha Ricci after defeating Angela Hill in the co-main event, TUF 32 winners Ryan Loder and Mairon Santos following their stoppage victories, Michael Morales after his impressive first-round finish of Neil Magny, Gerald Meerschaert following his record-breaking win against Edmen Shahbazyan, and more.

Audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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It was Dricus du Plessis’ UFC 290 win over former champion Robert Whittaker that put him over so to speak.  He had beaten Darrin Till and Derek Brunson heading into the Whittaker title eliminator bout but his win over “The Reaper” let everyone know that there was a new face in the top tier of the 185-pound division.

Du Plessis fought for the title in his next fight against then-champion Sean Strickland.  He narrowly defeated “Tarzan” to capture UFC gold.  At UFC 305 on Aug. 18, du Plessis successfully defended the belt for the first time against former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya.  The win drew the attention of light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.  

“Coming down to 185 one more time.” Pereira said after watching du Plessis defeat Adesanya.  Whittaker doesn’t think it’s the best idea for Pereira to drop back down to middleweight to take on the champion.  

“Honestly, I don’t think that’s a good fight for him (Pereira),” Whittaker told Submission Radio.  “I don’t think that’s a good fight for him.”  

Having success in a division up is one thing.  It’s pretty common.  Daniel Cormier, Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, etc. have pulled it off.  It can have advantages like speed and not having to cut weight.  But moving down a division hasn’t typically been a recipe for a successful outcome.  It didn’t work out for former lightweight champions Frankie Edgar, or BJ Penn, or former featherweight titleholder Cody Garbrandt, to name a few.  

Related: Ronda Rousey admits she’s not ‘neurologically fit’ for UFC return

“When you move up to light heavyweight, moving back down is tricky,” Whittaker said.  “It’s not like you move up for one fight.  He’s stayed up there.  He’s been fighting up there for awhile now, so it would take a lot out of him to get down.  And Dricus is so strong there.”

“Alex gets hit, and Dricus likes getting hit.  It’s hard to see someone with the amount of power to stop Dricus from walking forward into you,” Whittaker continued.  “Dricus hits hard.  You saw that in the fight with Adesanya.  Adesanya has like a really good chin.  Dricus was still hurting him enough to make him uncomfortable.”

Pereira puts his 205-pound title on the line in the UFC 307 main event against Khalil Rountree Jr. in Salt Lake City on Oct. 5.  Whittaker faces the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi.  Du Plessis is expected to rematch Strickland in his next title defense.     

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Whittaker is giving credit where credit is due to Du Plessis, whose fight style may not be pretty but certainly seems to work.

185 pound champion Dricus Du Plessis continues to shock and amaze fighters and fans with his unlikely wins, largely due to his unorthodox style that seems like it shouldn’t work but keeps earning him wins against the best middleweights in the world.

At UFC 305, he defeated Israel Adesanya to cement his position at the top of the division. And in July 2023 he took out Robert Whittaker, earning a TKO win in the second round. During a new interview with Submission Radio, “The Reaper” discussed “DDP” and his unlikely success.

“I thought Adesanya looked spectacular,” he said of the UFC 305 showdown. “I thought this was probably the best version we saw of him. He was very effective. He looked in his groove. He was landing big shots. But man, DDP is one of those guys that if you don’t kill him, he’s going to win the fight. You got to really take the fight to him for 25 minutes. And if you if you give him any space, if you give him any opportunity to crawl back in, he just keeps coming.”

“You cannot sit on your laurels. You need to be wired on, locked in for 25 minutes.”

“I’d like to think that I never underestimate my opponents, but I probably did him,” Whittaker admitted regarding Du Plessis. “Maybe. It’s hard to say. You know, the prep wasn’t ideal. And everybody says it: you look at him fight, and the guy looks like a pub fighter, right? But he just keeps smashing people. In that first fight with him, I saw the punches coming. I moved out of the way. I felt good in there. I was like, I got this. And then I got punched in the face, right?”

“It’s not a pretty style, but it’s effective. Super effective. And I think the biggest thing is the mentality behind his shots. If you’re not at that level, like, if you’re not on the same plane of offering as he is, then he’s going to run away with it.”

At this point, Whittaker doesn’t see any of the current big names beating Du Plessis. Not Sean Strickland, who the UFC has tapped for the next title shot, or Alex Pereira, who says he wants to move back down to middleweight to face the South African champion.

“He’s been fighting up there [at 205] for a while now,” Whittaker said of Pereira. “So it’s it would be it would take a lot out of him to get down. And Dricus is so strong there … Dricus hits hard. You saw that in the fight against Adesanya. Adesanya has a really good chin, and Dricus was still hurting him enough to make him uncomfortable.”

“Dricus is a hard fight. He just has that insane pressure and willingness to get hit to to land hits. And he wins that fight [against Strickland] a lot of the time. I think he’s going to be he’s a hard fight for a lot of people.”

Next up for Robert Whittaker is a long-awaited showdown with Khamzat Chimaev in Abu Dhabi at UFC 208 on October 26th. It’s a pivotal fight for the Australian’s career, and “Bobby Knuckles” believes his gameplan is no big secret.

“It’s quite simple, you know,” he said. “You’ve got to worry about how hard he’s going to push the wrestling envelope in the first few rounds. And then what I’m going to do after that, after I stop the takedowns, after I get back up or whatever, and just taking the fight to him? Everyone can see how this fight’s going to play out. Everyone can make a rough plan on how to approach it. So what you’re thinking is probably what I’m doing.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts