Yahoo Sports MMA contributor Ben Fowlkes spoke to the UFC middleweight champion ahead of his upcoming fight on Saturday at UFC 305 against Israel Adesanya.
Video Transcript
Ben, Folks here with Yahoo Sports.
I am talking with UFC middleweight champion Dras Duplessis, who fights Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia, on August 17th.
Dras, First of all, one of the things that’s interesting to me.
I was looking at some of the numbers, uh, on, you know, especially betting odds on you before the last few fights, as you kind of climbed up the middleweight rankings.
The last few fights, it seems like every single time you open as an underdog and some of the times, by the time the fight rolls around and the the betting action has come in, you flipped and you’ve become the favourite.
But it seems like odds makers and maybe some M MA fans when they look at you, even though you’re winning all these fights you haven’t lost in the UFC, they still look at you and think like OK, but maybe this one.
Maybe maybe the next one is the one that he loses.
And I’m I’m curious.
If you’re kind of aware of that perception, what do you think that’s about?
Yeah, I guess so.
Um, doesn’t really, you know, at the end of the day you can have all the odds in the world, But, you know, there’s no odds fighting a fight.
There’s no odds when that door closes.
Um, I’ve been the underdog for, especially at the top for every single fight.
Yeah.
I mean, obviously, Robert Whitaker the street and fight.
Uh, I think even bran, I’m not even sure, but that it doesn’t matter to me.
I mean, I know all my my, uh, friends, Uh, they make a lot of money like that.
So they’re happy with that?
Yeah, that that was gonna be My next question is when you especially for the Rob Whittaker fight.
That was a good example where you came in as kind of a heavy underdog in that one.
It didn’t seem like a lot of people were giving you a chance.
Do you tell your friends?
Hey, uh, I got this one.
Don’t worry about it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, and they they just always know.
I mean, all of them, um, they just see what I’m putting in.
They just see what what’s up.
And they know what’s what’s coming.
And they’ve been there for years.
The friends the, uh you know the circle family, all of those.
They they know what’s going on.
They see me putting in the work.
They see what I’ve been doing.
They know over the past 15 years what I’ve been doing, what I’ve been, uh what?
I’ve sacrificed the the hours and hours I’ve put into to do this.
So, yeah, I mean, being the underdog, I mean, that’s great, you know, uh, but it’s, uh it’s I feel kind of good being the underdog with that nice, shiny belt around the shoulder that, uh, that always helps.
Yeah, well, the the thing that happened with the Robert Whitaker fight and afterwards where you know, you were offered the title fight with Israel to Sonia kind of very quickly after that Robert Whitaker fight, and you chose instead to say, Hey, I want to take some time off and and heal up a little bit and not rush into a title fight, which we’ve seen that decision go poorly for other people in the past.
And it worked out really well for you.
Take me back to that and and tell me a little bit about what the calculation was in your mind when you got that off, right?
I gotta imagine when you first hear it.
There’s a part of you that has to want to jump at it.
Absolutely.
And, uh, let me tell you this.
I obviously took no damage in the Whitaker fight.
Not at all.
But, you know, it was not even three weeks.
It was literally my last session before we flew out, I completely tore the ligaments.
Um uh, in my in my ankle.
And, uh, I couldn’t kick before the work for it was 18 days.
Didn’t kick once, Um, I could barely even walk.
Um, after that session, and the next day, I was set to fly out to, um to the, uh, to Vegas.
So it was a It was an interesting It was a very interesting thing is now we’re thinking of pulling the Whitaker fight, but I said, Listen, guys, we are already fit, and we had more than enough reason.
If you went on medical records to go, we have to call this fight And any doctor in the UFC doctors.
Everybody would say, call this fight.
But I said I’m already fit.
I don’t need that foot to win the fight.
I mean, it would have helped to have it.
But you know, if it’s not ready in the 18 days, then so be it.
But I’m already fit.
I’ve already done all the work for the camp.
This is just something that adrenaline.
I won’t feel it in the fight.
It’s fine.
So we went and took the fight, obviously felt great in the fight.
And then afterwards no, they gave me that fight on eight weeks notice.
Eight weeks after that fight and people go.
But the wedding, the fight was you didn’t take any damage.
And correct.
I didn’t take any damage.
But the fight camp I did, I was injured.
So making a decision wasn’t that hard.
It was hard mentally and and, you know, emotionally, because I’m a fighter.
I don’t want to turn down a fight ever and especially fighting for the world title.
But I was not going to be doing it on on the in those circumstances.
It would have been, uh, not only it’s not bravery.
It would have been stupidity to do.
To do that, I wouldn’t have been able to train even at a 60%.
With that, I wasn’t able to run.
I wasn’t able to, um, move properly in terms of just, uh, boxing.
I wasn’t able to kick for sure.
It was, uh and then we have to realise as well I was 20.
I’m 29 years old.
Uh, when that when?
At that stage.
And I have a long career ahead of me.
So these these are injuries that could basically, you know, you can be It can be a injury or needle for the rest of your career if you don’t look after it.
Correct.
So we made the decision and, uh, you know, from a medical standpoint and from any sense, it was a pretty easy decision.
And II I said II.
I actually was ready to, uh, when I declined that fight, I was making ready for another contender fight because, um, you know, I thought the UFC was gonna be pissed off me, and I think they were I honestly think they were kind of pissed off, but it worked out great for them.
In the end, I think I think everything worked out the strict and data designer on Australia was great.
Um, and, uh, it changed up the whole dynamic of the division because I mean, now you have me as champion.
You have Adesanya me and Adesanya, which is an amazing fight, even bigger now that I’ve become champion even bigger than the first time, in my opinion.
And then you have Whitaker fighting comes out that that brings another contender.
You have Sean Strick in the rematch because since we went to a split decision now, now the possibilities are endless.
So everything worked out the way it should.
And no, I always believe that.
I always believe I always have and everything will work out the way it should.
The only thing I have control over is how hard I work and how good I perform, and that is basically it.
The injury wasn’t my fault, and there’s nothing I could do about it.
But it all worked out in the end, like uh, like I knew it would.
You mentioned, you know, the split decision at end.
The Sean Strickland fight at least seemed to me that one of the things that made the big difference there is that while he’s kind of a a volume striker, you seem to be the guy throwing harder and throwing the harder shots.
And it seemed like maybe with the judges when they’re looking at it and they’re trying to decide who to give each round to that.
Maybe they’re gonna go with you when it’s very close, because it seems like you’re throwing a lot harder.
Uh, regardless of how cleanly they’re landing, or even if he happens to be throwing more total strikes, it seems like yours are more powerful.
And I’m curious if that’s a conscious choice on your part.
Is it just that that’s how hard you you’re you’re trying to throw at all times?
Or like, Are you aware that, hey, you know, the judges are looking for damage?
And so if you seem to be the guy throwing the harder shots that they count for more than the guy throwing more total shots?
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it’s kind of hard to make the the that calculation while you’re in there getting punched in the face and punching someone.
So at the end of the day, advancing forward in that fight, I knew he was a volume striker.
I know I had the harder punch, he was a lot harder to hit than originally anticipated.
And, you know, he showed that many times before and he showed against me in the first two rounds.
I was really struggling to really get to him in round three.
No, round two, I one for sure around 34 and five, depending on who you ask.
But, um, I, uh you know, I started figuring him out by around three.
I hadn’t figured out I had I had figured out OK, this is how he throws the jab.
And that’s why I landed a lot less.
Uh, I was chopping at the leg, so that was working.
But at the end of the day, in that fight, I had 23 minutes of forward pressure of going forward.
And if you look at a fight from a beer, um, striking point of view where it’s very close, you know, one guy is landing the quantities like you said, Uh, but one guy is landing the big, uh, the big shots.
Then the guy going forward is, and the the aggressor of the situation is probably going to be the guy that, uh if there’s not something crazy happening if it’s just a back and forth fight.
But one guy is moving forward at all times.
That’s gonna That’s gonna swing a judge 100%.
And that makes sense to me and to anybody in the world.
If you’re going forward, you’re putting on the pressure.
I’m dictating the pace of the fight, and I’m making the fight a war.
That is why, you know, in the striking they gave me that fight and that is taking out of the equation the fact that we are M MA fighters that is taking out the equation that I landed a couple of head kicks, I landed the low kicks.
I landed a couple of body kicks.
Quite a few, actually.
Uh, I landed.
I landed 45 takedowns.
So taking the M MA aspect out of it, just being the aggressor and controlling the cage was was a big deciding factor.
And, uh, then when you bring in the kicks and the takedowns with that, that’s where um, that’s why I was a no brainer.
You know, the split decision was more shocking to me than anything else.
Well, how do you think that style plays against a guy like Israel Asana who seems like a little bit more dangerous of a counterfeiter than Sean Strickland is that, you know, we’ve seen guys who feel like they have him in trouble and go after him.
And, you know, Alex Pereira paid the price for that.
What kind of a fight do you expect it to be with a Deanna?
Yeah, 100%.
I mean, it’s a completely different fight.
And that’s why we we go.
Um uh, every fight needs to be approached, Um, as an individual fight.
You know, I didn’t fight Sean Suan the way I fought Whitaker at all, Not at all.
The same fight.
And, um, it might look the same.
It might look the same to somebody on the outside, but, you know, uh, from a professional point of view, you can see the differences quite clearly and the same with Laan.
He’s a completely different fighter than than Sean Shidler.
So a completely different plan to fight him.
And, um, you know, with him being a counter fighter, uh, a counter for he does come forward at times, and he and he goes for it.
And absolutely, like you said, don’t make the mistakes.
Those that, uh, that came before me made.
And, uh, that’s that’s basically what’s, uh, what’s gonna be a key to victory for me not making the same mistakes that those who lost to him made you know, he’s been known to to talk a lot.
He’s also he’s he’s really played up, Uh, at times, the the African angle between the two of you.
Do you expect it to be sort of a a tense fight week, where you guys are going at each other a lot.
Maybe Maybe, um, you know, um, we’ll see.
We’ll see how he behaves on on, uh, how I behave and, well, I’ll, I’ll match that energy, you know, because And at the end of the day, we’re so close to a fight, no matter who says what The end of the day, it’s gonna be.
You know, we have, uh, about a week left until, uh, the the Octagon door closes.
Whatever he says is not gonna make any difference to me.
It’s not gonna make any difference to what’s happening next week.
Sunday.
So, um, I mean, uh, I’m assuming that the fans would like to roll it up I’m assuming it’s gonna be interesting to see what is what is his energy is because, as, uh, up to this point in terms of the energy that we are used to and that we’re seeing right now, you know, it doesn’t look like a man is ready to ready to kill to get that belt.
And I’m ready to kill it.
Keep it well, lastly, you know, with you being the underdog for so many of these fights.
If you go into this one against Israel Asana, who was the champion for a while and was a a highly respected champion, if you go in there in Australia and and beat him there, do you think that’s when uh, you know you’ll get a little bit more respect from from fans from odds makers from you?
Do you think that that’s the fight where you come out of that?
The winner and people go, Hey, this guy is the champion and deserves to be treated as such, man, to be quite honest with you, it makes absolutely no difference to me.
Um, you know, I have my people in my team, my family in my circle, the people I know, and I have my fans out of my country.
They are the best in the world.
I mean, they they they believe I can tell you that.
And, you know, if the rest of the people, the people who don’t believe in the I honestly don’t care.
I mean, um, look at Look at what I’ve done.
Look at what I’m doing.
That’s that’s the only thing that really, really matters to me.
Um, so, yeah, I mean, if they can, they can keep writing me off.
They can keep, uh, treating me as an underdog does not matter to me.
I’m getting paid great money.
I’m living my dream, and I’m champion of the world.
And that’s the only things that matter.
Right?
We’ll wrap it up there, Dragus.
Thank you again for the time.
Thank you so much.
