ISRAEL ADESANYA broke down in tears after being overcome with emotion during a fiery UFC 305 press conference.
The Last Stylebender will bid to become a three-time ruler of the middleweight division early on Sunday morning in a grudge match with Dricus Du Plessis in Perth, Australia.
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The pair – whose bad blood stems from Du Plessis’ comments about being the first “real” African UFC champion – traded heated verbal jabs during Friday morning’s pre-fight press conference in Perth.
Defending champion Du Plessis has doubled down on the comments and took a swipe at Adesanya’s childhood during their penultimate pre-fight face-off.
Nigerian-born Kiwi Adesanya, 35, was overcome with emotion and said as he began to well up: “He touched a subject there because I do this for my family.
“I do this for the people I love, and I will fight for you forever, I swear to God. Watch this.
“Look, I am a f***ing human being, I am a man. I can cry and whoop your ass at the same time.
“First time I fought here [in Perth], [UFC] 221, that was February 2018, that was me making me dreams come true.
“Sunday, I’m going to f***ing kill your dreams, b***h. I’m going to f***ing kill your dreams.”
Adesanya became visibly angry at Du Plessis for mentioning his upbringing before his outpouring of emotion.
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“Bro, shut the f**k up!” he roared. “You don’t even know anything about my story. You have no idea who the f**k I am.”
Moments later, he added: “Listen, my father and myself had to wake up at 4 a.m. and clean the banks while my mom studied to be a nurse.
“You don’t know my f***ing story. Don’t f***ing speak on my story if you don’t know my story.
“I will show you who you are Sunday, so right now shut the f**k up.”
Du Plessis, 30 has refused to apologise for his comments which insinuated Kamaru Usman, Adesanya and Francis Ngannou‘s respective winning of the welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight titles weren’t triumphs for Africa.
DDP told SunSport: “If I could take time back, I would say exactly the same because I stated the facts.
“I 100 per cent stated the fact that I am the African fighter that resides in Africa.
“And I want to be the first champion that was African-born, African-raised, African-trained and still resides in Africa.
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“And taking that back would make no sense because that’s a fact.
“I’m not taking anything away from their heritage,” the former two-weight EFC champion said. “Or saying they’re not African.
“Not at all. But they don’t reside in Africa and that’s facts.
“They didn’t train in Africa, they didn’t get their expertise of fighting in Africa.
“That’s where I get mine. My coaches, my team, everybody is African. So, yeah, I will not take it back.
“And I will always stand by it because it will always be the fact.”