As Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya contest the first all-African UFC title fight, what will be the impact of their bout?
The UFC has placed the bitter cultural dispute between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya front and centre of its build-up to the promotion'sAdesanya, who has talked of his "beautiful childhood" in Lagos before moving to New Zealand as a 10-year-old, has accused Du Plessis of disrespecting the so-called
The 30-year-old believes the fact that Adesanya, Usman and Ngannou all live and train overseas lessens their right to call themselves African champions.Adesanya, who fights out of New Zealand, has said beating Du Plessis is more important than winning a middleweight title he has twice held before. For now, he says, MMA is progressing rather than thriving in Nigeria, with no existing system to train fighters to become rounded across key skills such as striking and groundwork."But do we have athletes who can make us proud? Yes, we have a lot of strong people here."
Nkazimulo Zulu, a two-weight champion for South Africa's Extreme Fighting Championship, says Du Plessis gives personal support to athletes at the CIT. The UFC sees Africa as a huge market with a rapidly growing audience but, despite long talking up the idea, the organisation is yet to hold an event on the continent during its 31-year history.
One of the first of those will involve Springboks icons Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth, who will accompany Du Plessis to the octagon ahead of his battle with Adesanya."It is something Dana and the team have talked about a lot over the last year or so, and there is certainly a determination for it to happen soon," UFC executive David Shaw said of their plans for Africa.
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