Israel Adesanya (image via UFC/YouTube)

By FCF Staff

After Dricus Du Plessis secured the UFC’s middleweight title in January there was a lot of talk about him fighting Israel Adesanya at UFC 300, but, the announcement never came. Well, more recently, Adesanya has claimed that he and Du Plessis were indeed asked to compete at the historic event, but that the new champ declined.

Du Plessis won the middleweight belt at UFC 297 by recording a split decision win over Sean Strickland. After the fight, he called for a bout with Adesanya once again, who he’s feuded with via interviews and media for some time now.

The former champ Adesanya recently spoke with Theo Von, and while doing so, he claimed it was the camp of Du Plessis who turned down a UFC 300 fight (quotes via MMA Fighting).

“There’s some things that were meant to happen,” Adesanya said. “They summoned me, I’m sure this is out there now … but they summoned me for [UFC] 300 and I was like ‘yep, let’s roll.’ But their side didn’t want it. They didn’t want it.”

“They just fought [Sean] Strickland so maybe he had a little bit of niggly injuries and stuff but we’ve all got niggles and what not.”

The 34-year-old Adesanya (24-3) also reportedly added that he’s fought through injuries for “many” of his last fights, which is why he elected to take some time off. After Adesanya lost the title to Strickland this past September, he announced he was going to take a break from fighting.

UFC 300 is taking place on April 13th in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will feature light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira versus former champ, Jamahal Hill in the main event.