UFC 305: South African Dricus du Plessis retains middleweight championship with submission of Israel Adesanya

South African Dricus du Plessis has stunned the world, submitting two-time former champion Israel Adesanya in the fourth round to retain the middleweight championship in Perth.

After more than a year of bad blood between the two, it all came down to an epic main event at UFC 305 in front of a sold-out RAC Arena.

And it was du Plessis who came out on top, landing several big shots that rocked the New Zealander before getting his back and locking in a rear-naked choke to force the tap-out.

Du Plessis is now set for a rematch against former champion Sean Strickland and leaves Adesanya’s future unclear, with the Nigerian-born star coming back after 11 months off.

It was Adesanya’s first submission loss of his career and the first time he’s ever lost consecutive fights in his incredible career.

Adesanya showcased his incredible speed and ability to counter-attack early, limiting the power of du Plessis.

Add in the range of the former two-time champion and he was able to get the better of most exchanges in the first round.

It clearly upset du Plessis, who came out in the second round and wanted to wrestle Adesanya, shooting for several takedowns instead of going toe-to-toe.

This frustrated the fans who wanted to see the two stand and deliver.

Adesanya kept himself from taking too much damage and managed to get what he wanted in the third round which was a stand-up brawl.

It became a fight between Adesanya’s precision and du Plessis’ power.

And in the end, du Plessis’ power won out when it overwhelmed Adesanya to force the submission and extend the South African’s UFC streak to eight consecutive wins.

du Plessis said he was happy that Adesanya was at his best for the grudge match.

“The man is as good as I thought. I’m so happy that he went out there and after the fight (we can) say this was the best Israel Adesanya,” he said.

“You could see it just in physique.”

du Plessis opened up on his strategy to beat Adesanya which involved giving up the centre of the octagon before pressing forward.

“Every round you can see this, at the beginning of the round I was standing my ground, but he was in the middle of the octagon, and he was almost dictating but if you’re not used to fighting like that you get more tired,” he said.

“And I didn’t back off, I wasn’t fighting on the outside I just stood my ground and at around two minutes my coach would shout ‘listen, it’s time to go’ and I would start pushing forward.

“In every round at the end I got the success. And every round at the first bit when he was dictating it would be shorter and in that fourth round I landed quite a lot of big shots. The man can take a punch but you can only take so many.”

Adesanya said he wasn’t desperate to get the win back off du Plessis in a rematch.

“He gave me a lot of respect in there and I gave him his respect back,” Adesanya said.

“I already knew he was a fan of me, but I guess know I’m a fan of his because we’ve been in there, we’ve done it.

“I said ‘look, we can hang out but just so you know when we have to fight again I’m going to have to kill you’ and he was like ‘I’m going to kill you too’.

“The respect is always there and Dricus is an African champion, but the three kings will reign supreme, that era was what set it off for people like him and he’s going to inspire another generation of African fighters as well.

“Congrats to him for tonight, until we meet again.”

Adesanya said everything happened for a reason as he hinted towards the next phase of his career.

“It’s weird how this whole timeline works. It’s still destiny. This is not what I planned, this is not what I manifested but I believe in the strangest things,” he said.

“Everything happens for a reason because I’ve had situations in life not go my way and later on it makes sense as to why it didn’t go my way at the time because of certain things that could’ve happened to me.

“It’s still my destiny. It’s not about the belt, it’s not about all those things. It’s just about doing what I want to do in this game to close the show and like I said, I’ve still got a long way to go.”

Returning lightweight Dan Hooker is set to shoot into the top-five after an incredible upset over Polish wrestler Mateusz Gamrot.

Hooker was left bloodied and beaten but claimed the split decision victory to send the crowd into chaos.

Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa’s career is at a crossroads after his fifth-consecutive defeat, losing by split decision to Jairzinho Rozenstruik in a smashmouth brawl.

Brazil’s Carlos Prates knocked out Chinese legendary final Jingliang Li for the first time in his career to start the main card.

It was mostly a good night for the Australians in the prelims with several strong victories.

Queensland’s Tom “Big Train” Nolan got it rolling with a decision win over Alex Reyes to make it consecutive wins in the UFC.

Popular Melbournian Jack Jenkins was in control for three rounds against Herbert Burns, eventually getting the TKO 48 seconds into the third round.

Casey O’Neill claimed her 10th career win with a unanimous decision win over Luana Santos after a strong three-round showing.

Sydney’s Josh Culibao was left devastates though after he was on the wrong a controversial split decision against Brazil’s Ricardo Ramos.

Brisbane’s Junior Tafa was left furious after a controversial submission loss to Valter Walker in the dying seconds of the first round.

Tafa was caught in a heel hook and the referee stopped the fight because of a verbal tap out which angered the fans.