Du Plessis books Adesanya grudge match with shock UFC 290 KO of Whittaker

DRICUS DU PLESSIS teed up a grudge match with Israel Adesanya thanks to a shock second-round TKO victory over Robert Whittaker.

The South African slugger looked to continue his surge up the middleweight ranks against the former champion on a stacked UFC 290 card in Las Vegas on Saturday.

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The former EFC welter and middleweight titleholder was a huge underdog going into the biggest fight of his professional MMA career.

But he produced a career-best display to set up what could be an ugly Sydney showdown with The Last Stylebender.

Both men traded leg kicks early doors as they looked to get a feel on one another.

Du Plessis looked nervous as he bit on each of Whittaker’s feints, which led to him eating a counter left hook.

Whittaker grounded the fight with a double leg just before the midway point and escaped the ensuing guillotine attempt.

The moment shifted in the final minute of the stanza courtesy of a beautiful sweep from Du Plessis, which he used to land nasty elbows on until the end of the round.

Whittaker came out strong in the second and narrowly missed Du Plessis’ cranium with a powerful head kick.

Du Plessis, 29, soon changed tact by looking to counter Whittaker’s karate-esque blitzes.

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And he timed one to perfection with a stiff straight right hand which rocked the former champion.

The Pretoria pounder didn’t waste the golden opportunity, hurting Whittaker with a flurry of follow-up strikes which forced the Aussie to collapse to the canvas.

And that prompted referee Mark Goddard to call a halt to proceedings.

Seconds after having his hand raised, Du Plessis found himself face-to-face with Adesanya.

After they were separated, Adesanya said: “Relax, this is my African brother. Let’s go n***a. What’s up, b***h ? Let’s go, n***a.

“Yeah, n***a. What the f**k you gonna do, n***a.? Yeah, my African brother, yeah my African brother.

“What’s up, brother?”

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The feud between Adesanya and Du Plessis began in March when the declared himself the UFC’s “real African fighter” and suggested the belts won by Adesanya, Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou didn’t go back to Africa.

Adesanya, 33, took umbrage at Du Plessis’ comments, saying: ” As a product of colonization, you’re trying to tell me who the f**k I am.

“You could take the boy out of Africa, but you could never take the Africa out of the boy.

“I never did that to him. I never, ever discredited him as an African.

“OK, you are. Cool. You want to make a fight? Cool.

“But the fact that, as a f*****g c*****r to tell me who the f**k I am, that pissed me off.

“And that’s why he’s my next fight, because I don’t want to fight anyone else. This one pisses me off.”