After more than a year of a personal feud stemmed in Africanness, Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya will finally get their hands on each other to settle their differences – and decide a UFC championship. This middleweight title bout scheduled for five rounds is taking place Saturday, Aug. 17 (Sunday locally) at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) is going for his first title defense at 185 pounds after claiming the belt in January, when he defeated then-champ Sean Strickland by split decision at UFC 297. Du Plessis brings with him a nine-fight winning streak overall that dates back to September 2019, which includes seven UFC wins. Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC), a former two-time champ, is coming off the longest layoff of his career (self-imposed) after dropping the title to Strickland by unanimous decision 11 months ago at UFC 293.
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