Israel Adesanya talks about ‘mistake’ that cost him UFC 305 fight against Dricus du Plessis

Everything was going according to plan for Israel Adesanya until a barrage of punches from Dricus du Plessis led to the fight-deciding sequence that ruined his night at UFC 305.

While most of the action in Saturday's main event was a back-and-forth between the middleweight rivals, Adesanya insisted afterward that he was not hurt by du Plessis's punches just before du Plessis applied his rear-naked choke in the fourth round. Instead, Adesanya simply gave du Plessis credit for taking full advantage of the moment when he should have thrown a zigzag kick.

“I have to watch it again because I don't think I was shaken,” Adesanya said at the post-fight press conference at UFC 305. “I think I slipped and I was like, 'What the hell was that?' and then he tried to catch me as I was walking out. I can't remember how he took me down because everything inside me is always a blur. It's still fresh, it just happened 20, 30 minutes ago.”

“I tried to fight with the top hand and I don't know what mistake I made because I tried to spin into him but then he fell on my back because maybe I was using the fence? He went to a gable hold and then I couldn't separate the hands like I wanted to. I have to look closely to really see what happened but I felt great. He didn't really surprise me because I knew he was tough.”

At the time of the stoppage, the score was very close: two judges scored du Plessis 29:28 and the third official scored 29:28 for Adesanya.

It was pointed out on social media and by the UFC 305 broadcast team that it would be difficult to score the fight as both du Plessis and Adesanya had great moments in every round until the end.

For his part, Adesanya felt he had done enough to stay ahead for three or more rounds, but in the end it didn't matter because du Plessis finished the submission fight.

As much as he wanted the win, Adesanya admitted that he was still proud of his performance because he showed remarkable progress and gave it his all.

“I felt like I was winning the fight,” Adesanya said. “I hurt him a couple of times to the body and I felt like my punch was coming because he kept responding when I hurt his body. But again, tough guy, strong spirit. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed in myself, but I'm proud of how I did in this camp and I was well prepared. It sucks to lose.”

“In my eyes, I was winning the fight until I wasn't. As long as I was performing, I was proud of myself. I just don't like the result. But I'm not attached to the result. I'm just proud of my performance.”

Before Saturday night, Adesanya described his last performance as “horrific,” referring to the one-sided loss to Sean Strickland that cost him the UFC middleweight title.

This time, the defeat still hurts, but Adesanya admitted that he lost because du Plessis was “the better man” and that he could live with that result.

“Last time I lost my fight in the worst way,” Adesanya said. “This is the first time I've been submitted, another story. Wow, unbelievable. I'm going to keep going. I'm damn good at it.”

“I just wasn't happy with the last one. I'm happy with my performance on this one, just not the result. I didn't record the result. I just wanted to show what we did and I felt like I did that.”