Israel Adesanya is set to face middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis this weekend at UFC 305. The 2 time middleweight champion seeks to reclaim gold after being thoroughly beaten by Sean Strickland. Adesanya getting the shot after losing in his first title defence of his 2nd reign is questionable. But, nonetheless Izzy is getting the title shot looking to become a 3 time champion. And in the build up interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall was full of praise for Adesanya and Du Plessis.
Tom Aspinall Praises Dricus du Plessis
In the latest episode of Tom Aspinall’s Fight Lab Aspinall had a segment focused on Israel Adesanya vs Dricus Du Plessis. This section started 26 minutes into the video. Aspinall expressed his excitement at the match up and how this is a bit of a grudge match.
He first spoke about the current champ Dricus. Aspinall said, ” You watch him from the outside you think there’s a bit of a yeah skill deficit kill uh I’m looking for another word discrepancy between him and his opponent.” A fair observation as Dricus doesn’t exactly have a pretty or polished style. Aspinall elaborated saying, “A lot of the time he doesn’t look quite as skillful but he still manages to win the fights which is there’s obviously stuff that he does inside the Octagon that’s difficult to see from the outside.”
Aspinall explained, “So what what DDP is mainly doing is an absolute physical specimen. He just likes to close the gap and throw these awkward looping punches and also as soon as he gets this kind of body lock clinch position he’s super super strong from here. So alot of his fight style on the contrary to Israel Adesanya is getting in his opponents face, throwing the wide hooks like herky jerky strange style, and closing the distance in a bodylock.” An accurate summation of Dricus’ style.
Upon watching footage Aspinall mentioned that since Dricus had his nose fixed he’s looked better. Aspinall called Dricus, “a nightmare to fight he doesn’t give yah any space he’s just going forward.” Which is accurate and is what makes the Adesanya fight interesting given Izzy’s struggles with Stricklands pressure. Aspinall also mentioned that despite Dricus looking tired “he just kind of manages to maintain that tiredness.” Which Dricus does do well.
Tom Aspinall Praises Israel Adesanya
30 minutes in he then starts talking about Adesanya and quickly starts praising him. Tom said, “Israel Adesanya, such contrasting styles and by the way, if you’re not an Izzy fan, what are you? I mean, the guy’s an absolute technician. The thing with Izzy is the styles are so different, they’re on different universes, you know what I mean? They’re never mind a different spectrum. The way that Izzy fights is he has his hands low a bit, and he will constantly keep you guessing. But because he’s so long—6’4” at middleweight is so tall for a middleweight—he’ll do this kind of stuff a lot. He’s so good with his kicks; he fakes with the legs as well, so he’ll be doing a lot of this, then he’ll be coming up. We’ve seen him with his chopping leg kicks, we’ve seen him with the high kicks. He’s just so long, and he reads the fight so well. He’s had so many fights now as well. I’ve learned a lot just from watching him, do you know what I mean?”
Aspinall is full of praise for Adesanya’s technical striking complimenting the skilful use of kicking and reads. Whilst watching footage Aspinall also highlighted Izzy’s use of fakes and feints. He also summarised the matchup is a “bull vs matador”. At 35 minutes in he then moves onto the next section.
Aspinall himself is very interested in the fight but did not give a prediction. Let us know your thoughts and who you think will come out victorious Israel Adesanya or Dricus Du Plessis.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
