5 things we learned from the post-fight interviews at UFC 305

UFC 305 was a great program with great fights, good finishes and hard fought bouts. The prelims were mostly slow paced but the main card was exciting all night long. Carlos Prates became the first fighter to KO Li Jingliang while Jairzinho Rozenstruik inflicted another loss on Tai Tuivasa at an entertaining pace. Our prediction for Fight of the Night came true as Dan Hooker vs. Mateusz Gamrot had all the fans excited with Hooker pulling off an upset with a points win. More surprises came as Kai Kara-France became the first fighter to KO Steve Erceg and Dricus du Plessis became the first fighter to force Israel Adesanya to submit while retaining his belt. Takeaways from the UFC 305 post-fight press conference are discussed below.

UFC President Dana White was absent from UFC 305 for some reason, so Dave Shaw, a UFC executive, stepped in to answer questions instead. Shaw shared that UFC 305 was the highest grossing event in the history of the RAC Arena, and merchandising records were also broken. The ticket price was $5,477,097, and the attendance was 14,152, making the event a sell-out. UFC 284 was the last visit to Perth, which had 14,124 attendees and grossed $4,086,687.70. This event earned the records due to a high-quality main event with great preparation and fan favorites coming out on fight time. Hooker getting a fight gave the event a huge boost, as was evident by his win and the Fight of the Night bonus.

After a year-long layoff, Adesanya came back with more muscle mass than usual. Everyone was excited to see how much he would weigh on fight night. Adesanya finally revealed the weight stats in his post-fight press conference. While he normally goes into fight night at 196 pounds, Adesanya came into UFC 305 at 201 pounds. This was not surprising, as Adesanya looked strong and healthy going into this fight. He looked better than he did against Sean Strickland, as he put du Plessis in some danger in stand-up.

Adesanya and du Plessis had been feuding a lot before this fight. A big part of the argument was du Plessis saying he would be the first true African champion since he lives and trains in Africa, unlike other African champions like Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou. Adesanya decided to exaggerate this quote and make the whole issue about race, which fueled the rivalry. When du Plessis knocked out Robert Whittaker in a surprise win at UFC 290, he engaged in an in-cage altercation with Adesanya in which Adesanya used racist language, kicking off a crazy buildup to a big title fight. They didn't fight then because Adesanya planned to headline UFC 293, with du Plessis unable to turn around quickly due to a broken foot.

After the upset phase, where Adesanya lost to Strickland while du Plessis won, du Plessis challenged Adesanya to end their rivalry for good, which was booked for UFC 305. More mutual insults were part of the build-up, but the truly heated exchanges took place at the fight week press conference. Du Plessis used deep insults, such as subtle references to Adesanya's controversial sexual attraction to dogs and revealing an exaggeration of his life story. Adesanya claimed to have grown up in poverty, but apparently he became rich through servants, causing Adesanya to cry in public like never before. In what seemed like a never-ending rivalry, du Plessis and Adesanya reconciled after the fight, as both showed respect for each other. It was nice to see that Adesanya no longer harbored any hard feelings towards du Plessis after a loss compared to his losses to Strickland and Alex Pereira.

Kara-France surprised everyone by knocking out Erceg in such a manner. He showed that his power is on a whole other level as he might arguably be the most powerful flyweight currently. Kara-France believes he deserves a title shot next as he got a spectacular win over someone who gave a tough fight to current champion Alexandre Pantoja with a lot of hype. That's not a bad idea as he and Pantoja have a history together since their fight on The Ultimate Fighter in 2016 where Pantoja won a two-round fight by decision. There are currently talks of Kai Asakura, a former bantamweight champion on RIZIN, getting an immediate title shot against Pantoja in his first UFC fight. Any fight for Pantoja sounds exciting, whether it's fresh blood or a rematch with two improved athletes.

After du Plessis finished, he and Adesanya exchanged words while hugging. It seemed like they had made up and that made many curious about what was exchanged. A reporter eventually asked du Plessis about the exchange at his post-fight press conference. Du Plessis said he reiterated that making history as a true African champion never had anything to do with race. He also said that when he mentioned the servants at the press conference, he never said it as a disrespectful insult to Adesanya's parents, but that he respected them.