{"id":3764,"date":"2024-07-09T12:47:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T11:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2024-07-09T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T20:06:07","slug":"israel-adesanya-du-plessis-must-respect-what-i-ngannou-and-kamaru-usman-have-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/israel-adesanya-du-plessis-must-respect-what-i-ngannou-and-kamaru-usman-have-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya: Du Plessis Must Respect What I, Ngannou, and Kamaru Usman Have Done"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex flex-grow flex-col max-w-full\">\n<div class=\"min-h-[20px] text-message flex flex-col items-start whitespace-pre-wrap break-words [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-5 juice:w-full juice:items-end overflow-x-auto gap-2\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"90b7d27f-d1fa-465c-bad8-7a090351c020\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 juice:empty:hidden juice:first:pt-[3px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose w-full break-words dark:prose-invert light\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fighter Israel Adesanya praised his colleague and former UFC middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, after Whittaker returned to winning ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adesanya had defeated Whittaker to become the 185-pound champion at UFC 243.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He then beat him again in their title rematch at UFC 271. Now, both fighters are on a mission to reclaim the gold.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adesanya returns on August 17 at UFC 305 to challenge current champion Dricus du Plessis in the main event in Perth, Australia.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, Whittaker is riding a winning streak after victories over Paulo Costa and, most recently, Ikram Aliskerov.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adesanya said in an interview with ABC News: \u201cI fought the hometown hero, Rob Whittaker, who had an amazing win a week or two ago. But I fought him here, defending my belt for the first time on enemy soil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_66090\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YiomTWi4onE?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He added: \u201cToday I said, you know what? I\u2019ll make it a show. And I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He continued: \u201cWhittaker\u2019s knockout over Aliskerov was beautiful. Rob is that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He further remarked: \u201cWe\u2019ve fought twice. We always have history, but it was nice to see him back in the win column. He\u2019s coming for me, so I have to stay ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As Israel Adesanya respects Whittaker, he expects the same from Du Plessis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adesanya is always irked by Du Plessis defining himself as the first true African champion in the UFC.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"PfCObVMCBa\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/2024\/07\/09\/why-does-renowned-referee-marc-goddard-refuse-to-officiate-ufc-champion-leon-edwards-fights\/\">Why does renowned referee Marc Goddard refuse to officiate UFC champion Leon Edwards&#8217; fights?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Why does renowned referee Marc Goddard refuse to officiate UFC champion Leon Edwards&#8217; fights?&#8221; &#8212; MMA MAG\" src=\"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/2024\/07\/09\/why-does-renowned-referee-marc-goddard-refuse-to-officiate-ufc-champion-leon-edwards-fights\/embed\/#?secret=907IBaKx8o#?secret=PfCObVMCBa\" data-secret=\"PfCObVMCBa\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adesanya said: \u201cFor me, you have to honor those who came before you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He continued: \u201cHe\u2019s the guy saying, I\u2019m the real African champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He concluded: \u201cBut look, you wouldn\u2019t be able to do what you\u2019re doing in your homeland if it wasn\u2019t for me, Francis Ngannou, and Kamaru (Usman).\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel Adesanya finished by saying: \u201cDon\u2019t pave the way for yourself. So you have to respect your elders, and I\u2019ll make sure I do that with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-1 flex gap-3 empty:hidden juice:-ml-3\">\n<div class=\"items-center justify-start rounded-xl p-1 flex\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fighter Israel Adesanya praised his colleague and former UFC middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, after Whittaker returned to winning ways. Adesanya had defeated Whittaker to become the 185-pound champion at UFC 243. He then beat him again in their title rematch at UFC 271. Now, both fighters are on a mission to reclaim the gold. Adesanya [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,86],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"category-mma-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3767,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/3767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}