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Way back on January 21 (following DDP's victory over Sean Strickland), oddsmakers set odds for a potential matchup between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya.
Fast forward nearly five months (holy cow time flies!), and the bout everyone is eager to see is official as DPP and Izzy will square off at UFC 305. Adesanya announced on his X account Monday (June 18) that he will finally face off against the middleweight champion. This fight will take place on August 17.
SportsBetting.ag initially opened the odds for this fight as a pick 'em (-110 each way), early action tipped toward Adesanya and increased even further over the months.
Here are the current numbers:
UFC 305
Dricus Du Plessis +130
Israel Adesanya -150
Du Plessis will make his first defense of the title he claimed from Sean Strickland at UFC 297 last January. Adesanya will attempt to become the first fighter since Randy Couture to own three separate title reigns in the same division.
Du Plessis has long claimed that he intended to become the first legitimate African UFC champion. Du Plessis stated in an interview for UFC 285:
Per MMA Junkie: “Did those belts ever go to Africa? As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’m going to take a belt to Africa. I’m the African fighter in the UFC. Myself and Cameron (Saaiman), we breathe African air. We wake up in Africa every day. We train in Africa, we’re African born, we’re African raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa – that’s an African champion, and that’s who I’ll be.“
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