‘Stillknocks’ and ‘The Great’ traded fearsome shots at the world-renowned Tiger Muay Thai gym in Phuket, Thailand.
The All-African grudge match has captured the imagination of the MMA community, with fans around the globe desperate to see who will claim the bragging rights.
And incredibly, their story began years before they ever even reached the UFC, with the superstars crossing paths at Tiger Muay Thai.
During their time in Thailand, Du Plessis sparred with Alexander Volkanovski.
The combat sports phenoms traded leather during high-paced rounds in the Phuket heat, with the South African admitting that the former featherweight world champion took him down despite the size difference.
During a joint interview with MainEvent, the pair reminisced over the session.
The 185-pound King said: “When I saw the video, I immediately remembered him; I mean, the man still had hair. I was 19 or 20 years old when that happened.
“When me and him were sparring, I remember him taking me down. When I saw the video, I went, ‘I remember the session clearly, and I thought, ‘S**t, he’s a featherweight’.”
Volkanovski added: “It is crazy. Even having us sparring and then having Izzy come and randomly bump in. It’s like, ‘How did this happen in the middle of Thailand’? It was so weird. Every time I see it, it blows me away, especially with the level we’re at now.”
Du Plessis concluded: “Petr Yan was in that room too, but none of us were in the UFC yet. The only person who was making a name for himself was Mairbek Taisumov.
“That’s the beautiful thing about this sport. We were all chasing the same dream. Look at us now. There were four or five world champions who were training there at the same time that weren’t in the UFC yet.
“That’s special footage to see. Look at how far we’ve come. We got there different routes. Now, we have rivalries, but at the end of the day, we all started the journey with the same vision in mind.”
While the middleweight title-holder gets on well with Volkanovski, the same can’t be said about his teammate.
Adesanya despises Du Plessis, and wants to make him pay when they clash in the cage this evening.
The Nigerian-born kickboxer claims that his rival doesn’t give Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman the credit they deserve.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, Adesanya revealed why this has aggravated him so much.
Israel Adesanya’s coach, Eugene Bareman, recently revealed that despite the fierce animosity between “The Last Stylebender” and Dricus Du Plessis, he shares a surprisingly warm camaraderie with the UFC middleweight champion and his team.
The tension between these middleweight powerhouses has been building for a while, and it almost reached a breaking point during their fiery altercation in the Octagon at UFC 290 in July 2023. Adesanya and Du Plessis were initially targeted to settle their differences at UFC 293 in September 2023, but “Stillknocks” was forced to withdraw due to an injury.
However, UFC 290 wasn’t the first time these rivals crossed paths in public. Back in 2016, while both were training at the Tiger Muay Thai facility in Thailand, Du Plessis accidentally collided with Adesanya. Unlike their recent heated exchanges, this hasty encounter was marked by mutual apologies rather than harsh words.
Beyond the competitive tension, the animosity between them intensified when “Stillknocks” challenged Adesanya’s African identity, questioning the legitimacy of the Nigerian-born fighter who now calls New Zealand home.
However, this discord doesn’t extend to City Kickboxing’s head coach, who maintains a positive relationship with Du Plessis…
During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Bareman shared that he enjoys a cordial rapport with Du Plessis and his team despite their complex history with the former middleweight champion.
The esteemed MMA coach recounted first meeting the South African team during a 2016 training session at Tiger Muay Thai. At that time, they established a bond that has only deepened over the years, despite the ups and downs involving his own fighter.
Bareman further noted that he recently interacted with several members of Du Plessis’ team during UFC 305 fight week and found them to be exceptionally respectful.
It remains highly uncertain whether Adesanya and Du Plessis will put their bad blood to rest after their fight. However, one thing is certain: the showdown is set to deliver an electrifying spectacle for fans, fueled by the deep-seated rivalry between the two fighters.
UFC 305 won’t be the first time that Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis have come to blows, with the two having actually sparred together back in 2014; years before either one of them was signed to the MMA promotion.
Now, over a decade later, the pair of superstars are finally set to brawl it out under the bright lights of the UFC, albeit this time with world championship glory on the line. So, what did both fighters, plus CKB coach Eugene Bareman, have to say on their now infamous training session?
The year is 2014, and Israel Adesanya’s fledgling combat sports career is flip-flopping between Muay Thai and Kickboxing, with the New Zealander having only two professional MMA fights under his belt.
Yet as he and a few other members of the City Kickboxing Team train together in Phuket, Thailand, Adesanya would end up standing across the training room from a young Dricus Du Plessis, who was himself making his way through the EFC Africa series.
On an episode of Impaulsive, Adesanya would recall how that first sparring session went, noting that whilst the young South African did have a major advantage in the grappling, it was left to ‘Stylebender’ to teach him a lesson on the feet.
Earlier this year, footage of the two training together would be shared online and whilst it’s not a video of the pair actually sparring, it is fascinating to see what ‘Stylebender’ described as the origin of their now-intense rivalry.
Now that we’ve heard one side of the story, what did Dricus Du Plessis have to say about sparring Adesanya?
Speaking to The Schmo, Du Plessis would explain his side of the story regarding the now-infamous sparring session between the two, noting first how this all went down when he was just a spry 19-year-old.
The South African brawler claimed that Adesanya saying that they also followed up with a round of striking is “his way of saving himself” from revealing the truth of the sparring session.
Interestingly, Adesanya wasn’t the only member of the CKB team to have sparred Dricus Du Plessis that day, with coach Eugene Bareman also putting in a few rounds with the South African.
Speaking this week to Submission Radio, the veteran coach refused to elaborate on how the sparring went but praised the Du Plessis’ team for the respect they’ve shown him since.
Israel Adesanya vs Dricus Du Plessis headlines UFC 305, scheduled to go down live from the RAC Arena in Perth on Saturday, August 17.
