“He Knew About Me”: As Dricus Du Plessis’ African Heritage Beef With Israel Adesanya Gains Traction, Another UFC Fighter From Zimbabwe Weighs in on the Issue

Published 05/22/2023, 7:10 AM EDT

Dricus Du Plessis invited a lot of heat onto himself with his beef with Israel Adesanya over their African Heritage. The #6 ranked middleweight hit a nerve with the champion when he claimed he and his teammate were the only African fighters in the UFC. Du Plessis’ claims were grounded on the fact that African UFC stars like Adesanya a Kamaru Usman did not live and train in Africa.

Du Plessis faced harsh retorts from Adesanya and Kamaru Usman for his comments. Now, budding UFC star Themba Gorimbo has also raised an issue with Du Plessis’ comments. The welterweight prospect recently made headlines after his win at UFC Vegas 73. Gorimbo is the first fighter in the UFC from Zimbabwe. The 32-year-old had a rocky start to his UFC career after losing his debut earlier this year. Now he has got back to the winning column after beating Takashi Sato at UFC Fight Night 73. Being in the limelight after his victory, Gorimbo addressed Du Plessis’ claims during a recent interview.

Themba Gorimbo shuts down Dricus Du Plessis

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Speaking about the claims that Dricus Du Plessis made, Gorimbo said, “What Dricus said was wrong… At that time in point when the interview was done, he was not the only… African fighter who breathe and smell African air, wake up in African sun, with an African address. I was in Africa too and we trained 30 minutes away from each other. He knew about me. He talked to me a week before when i lost my fight.”

‘The Answer’ continued, “At that point in time he was wrong. And obviously, I didn’t have a foot to stand on because I was coming off a loss… So I kind of like took a backstop on that but it hurt me too.”

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He said, “It hurts me that the guy is saying ‘Myself and Cameron [Saaiman] are the only African fighters who live and breathe African air and wake up in Africa… That’s exactly what he said… That was not cool.”

Further, Gorimbo added that the belts came to Africa as both Usman and Adesanya took their belts to Nigeria and Francis Ngannou took his to Cameroon. He also mentioned that African fighters trained away from home due to a lack of infrastructure.

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What are your thoughts on Gorimbo’s claims? Is Du Plessis in the wrong? Let us know in the comments below.

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Written by:

Yeswanth Praveen is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports, having written over 500 articles on the sport. With a Master’s degree in English Literature, Yeswanth expertly combines his writing and storytelling skills with his passion for MMA. He was initially drawn to the sport after the intense rivalry between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov captured his attention.

Edited by:

Rohini Kottu

“He Knew About Me”: As Dricus Du Plessis’ African Heritage Beef With Israel Adesanya Gains Traction, Another UFC Fighter From Zimbabwe Weighs in on the Issue

Themba Gorimbo shuts down Dricus Du Plessis

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