Exclusive: Geoff Neal weighs in on Dricus du Plessis' "weird" performance against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305: "Wasn't expecting that"
Geoff Neal is preparing for his fight in the Fall but took some time to check out the UFC pay-per-view over the weekend. Dricus du Plessis retained his middleweight title over former two-time champion at 185 pounds Israel Adesanya when he secured a rear naked choke at UFC 305.
When speaking to James Lynch of Sportskeeda MMA, the entertaining welterweight combatant was asked about the South African titleholder's perfromance that night. In response, Neal said:
"It was just weird. It's like he doesn't look like he can fight. Like if you just look at his style and how he moves around it's just like how's the dude the champ? But then he always pulls it off. It's just amazing to watch. Wasn't expecting that but you know what I mean, hats off to him, congrats... I thought Izzy was gonna outpoint him."
"I think he was having success. I don't know how the judges were scoring the rounds but I think I had it 2-2 at the end. What was it the fourth round that Izzy got finished? Yeah I think I had it 2-2 up until that point. But I'm not a judge, you know, thank god... Yeah I mean, congrats to DDP."
Check Geoff Neal's remarks on du Plessis vs. Adesanya at UFC 305 (starting form 5:38) below:
Geoff Neal's next in-cage assignment for the UFC
Geoff Neal will next be stepping into the cage on Oct. 26 and will be facing a former UFC champion in the process. The former 155-pound titleholder Rafael dos Anjos will be colliding with Neal at UFC 308 on the preliminary portion of the event which takes place in Abu Dhabi.
The 33-year-old will look to rebound in this fight after back-to-back losses to a pair of ranked welterweights. Neal fell short to Shavkat Rakhmonov via third-round standing rear naked choke at UFC 285 and was also defeated by Ian Machado Garry via split decision at UFC 298.
As for dos Anjos, he returns to the welterweight division after a setback against Mateusz Gamrot in a lightweight bout at UFC 299.
'Handz of Steel' punched his ticket to a UFC contract by winning on the Contender Series circuit in July 2017. Geoff Neal has a 71 percent finishing rate inside the octagon having only gone the distance twice in the UFC.
The Texas native has signature wins over BKFC's King of Violence Mike Perry, the current UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad, and Vicente Luque.