Dricus Du Plessis defeated Israel Adesanya physically and mentally at UFC 305 | News, results, highlights, stats and rumors

Dricus Du Plessis is still the UFC middleweight champion after physically and mentally defeating Israel Adesanya in one of the most bitter rematches in recent history.

Du Plessis, who won the middleweight title by decision over Sean Strickland in January, faced former champion and martial arts legend Adesanya in the main event of the UFC 305 card on Saturday night in Perth, Australia.

The fight was preceded by months of trash talk between the two – trash talk that became so heated that it brought tears to the eyes of Nigerian-born New Zealander Adesanya at the pre-fight press conference.

Although the two middleweights ultimately settled their dispute in the Octagon, it is safe to assume that Du Plessis had long since beaten Adesanya before forcing his rival to submit in the fourth round of their highly anticipated showdown in Australia.

“I came here to die with this belt,” Du Plessis told commentator Daniel Cormier shortly after Adesanya's submission. “Here I am. And hush, baby.”

The fight started at a rapid pace, with both men trying to apply pressure from the first bell and, as the commentators quickly noted, the advancing party was the winner in almost every exchange.

This led to a very competitive first round, which was fought almost entirely standing up.

After a close first round with a fighter he described as “one of the best, if not the best, striker of all time,” Du Plessis began to rely on his world-class grappling in the second round, scoring several takedowns even as he struggled to keep the former champion on the mat.

“It's hard to bring people down at this level,” said Du Plessis. “The man is a monster when it comes to getting back up and not getting strangled.”

Before the third round, it looked like Adesanya was in big trouble, but the former champion ended up delivering his best round of the fight, punishing Du Plessis with powerful blows to the head and even more successfully to the body.

Adesanya's success continued into the opening moments of the fourth round – at which point it looked like a knockout was not far off – but it didn't last. After landing a few hard punches of his own, Du Plessis scored another cleverly timed takedown, leaping straight onto his challenger's back, applying a rear-naked choke and making him submit moments later.

“I made a stupid, stupid mistake on the ground,” Adesanya admitted in his post-fight interview with Cormier. “I didn't do what I wanted to do tonight. I'm disappointed in myself, but proud at the same time.”

“I knew he would be tough, so I wasn't surprised.”

Grudge matches often end with the fighters involved shaking hands, but the pre-fight animosity between Du Plessis and Adesanya was so intense that it was easy to imagine it would outlast the fight. In the end, however, Du Plessis apologized for his pre-fight comments. Most controversial was his suggestion that Adesanya was not a true African champion because his family moved from Nigeria to New Zealand when he was young.

“Africa would have won tonight either way,” said the champion before declaring it South Africa’s night.

“I have the utmost respect for him, warrior to warrior,” he added, shaking his opponent's hand and hugging him.

While some certainly expected 35-year-old legend Adesanya to retire from the cage following the devastating loss to his longtime rival, the former champion borrowed a line from “The Wolf of Wall Street” to assure his fans that he is here to stay.

“I'm not fucking going,” he said.

There is still a lot of work to be done for Du Plessis.

Ahead of UFC 305, UFC general manager Dana White revealed that Strickland, who won the title via a points victory over Adesanya before losing the belt to Du Plessis in January, is most likely next in line at middleweight. In addition, the UFC chief said that the winner of an October fight between former champion Robert Whittaker and undefeated challenger Khamzat Chimaev will also be in the title shot.

For Du Plessis, however, the opponent is irrelevant. The only thing that matters to him are the two words that Octagon commentator Bruce Buffer shouts after the fight.

“I want to hear 'and yet,'” he said. “I don't care about the opponent.”

Whoever he fights next and no matter how the title defense turns out, Du Plessis will make the long journey home from Perth to Pretoria knowing that he defeated one of the greatest middleweights of all time in the Octagon and in the mental battle before their clash inside it.