Du Plessis expressed respect for Adesanya

Alexandr Ormanji Feb. 16, 2026, 5:32 a.m.

Dricus du Plessis paid tribute to Israel Adesanya for taking a fight against 14th-ranked UFC middleweight Joe Pyfer.

"Credit should be given to Adesanya for giving a chance to a guy like Pyfer. Joe is not among the top rankings, but the fight promises to be exciting for fans, and that speaks to his quality as a fighter. Israel is risking his reputation to face a promising opponent he does not necessarily have to fight," du Plessis told MMAJunkie.

Recall that Adesanya's fight with Pyfer will take place at the UFC Fight Night 271 tournament in Seattle.

Donchenko crushingly defeated Morono and other results of UFC Fight Night 266

Here are the results of the UFC Fight Night 266 show, which took place on ...

UFC Fight Night 266: watch online, links to broadcast

On the night of February 8 in Las Vegas, the UFC Fight Night 266 tournament ...

UFC 325: Volkanovski confidently defeated Lopez in rematch and other results

We present the results of UFC 325, which took place on the night of February ...

UFC 325: watch online, links to broadcast

On the night of February 1, in Sydney, the UFC promotion will hold its 325th ...

UFC 325: Weigh-in Results

On the night of February 1, Sydney will host the UFC 325 event, headlined by ...

Gaethje defeated Pimblett and other results of UFC 324

Presenting the results of the UFC 324 show held on the night of January 25 ...

Comments

var _paq = window._paq = window._paq || []; _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//mm.magnet.kiev.ua/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'matomo.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', '1']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.async=true; g.src=u+'matomo.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })();

window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-DPZJLB78XY');