At UFC 290 last night, Israel Adesanya's next title challenger was determined in Dricus du Plessis — and it's exactly what the MMA scriptwriters ordered for.

In fact, it should have been the fight right from the start, but the UFC decided to book Du Plessis against former champion Robert Whittaker with the winner set to face Adesanya in the UFC 293 headliner in Sydney, Australia. It was an incredibly risky fight for Du Plessis as just about everyone was counting him out and with good reason. While he's undefeated in the UFC, he has a very reckless style and against the truly elite fighters of the weight class, it would be his downfall, especially against someone like Whittaker who many felt was superior in just about every facet of MMA. Adesanya was even going as far as manifesting a win for Du Plessis as he didn't believe in his ability to come out on top.

Instead, Du Plessis held his own on the feet and took the first round by taking Whittaker down and bloodying him up with elbows. The decisive blow would come in the second round when the South African dropped Whittaker and went on to finish him against the cage with a barrage of strikes. Du Plessis had shocked the world and set up a highly-anticipated clash with Adesanya in the process.

Now, for most MMA purists, the result was a nightmare. After all, Whittaker is a fan favorite and it's basically really hard to genuinely dislike him. Had Whittaker won, it would have also set up a trilogy with Adesanya in Australia. “The Reaper” lost his title to Adesanya via knockout back in Oct. 2019, but had a much better performance and closer fight in their rematch even if he did end up losing a second time. Given how Adesanya was finally able to defeat Alex Pereira in his fourth attempt, who was to say the ever-improving Whittaker couldn't pull things off in a third fight?

That won't happen now as Du Plessis will get his first-ever title shot against Adesanya in a fight that will more than likely favor “The Last Stylebender” even more than Whittaker from an odds perspective at least. But even if that's the case and Adesanya ends up winning, is it really that big of a problem? Adesanya has been going on about fighting fresh meat and Du Plessis is certainly that as he's one of the few fighters in the top ranks at 185 pounds not to have faced the champion yet.

While not many would complain about an Adesanya vs. Whittaker trilogy, it's a fight we've already seen twice and the second one — while competitive — wasn't exactly that entertaining either. This is natural as they are two of the best middleweights in the world and in a fight as important as a trilogy, they would be highly unlikely to engage in a brawl. The chances are it would have been similar to the second fight and end up going to the judges' scorecards with Adesanya possibly edging it once more as he is simply just a bad matchup for the Aussie.

Instead, we'll now get to see a fresh, new matchup with what should be an extremely entertaining build-up. Following his post-fight interview, Du Plessis faced off with Adesanya as things got fiesty with the latter going on an NSFW rant. Things are clearly heated between the two, and if you need a reminder why, consider that their beef all started when Du Plessis claimed the likes of Adesanya and Kamaru Usman weren't real African champions because they don't reside in the continent. It got personal from that point on.

And let's not forget — when things are personal, it brings out the best in Adesanya. Prior to his knockout win over Pereira, many had fallen out of love with Adesanya given that his title defenses started getting drab with little to no action. There were accusations of him playing it safe among other things. But as we saw against Paulo Costa, when you anger Adesanya, it unleashes a new beast within him, and Du Plessis seems to be on course to doing that. And while some are against trash talk, in the end, it's what makes UFC fights even more so entertaining. The pre-fight press conferences should be an absolute treat.

It might not be the highest level of MMA that we'll see, but the UFC needed Israel Adesanya to face Dricus du Plessis next. And after Du Plessis shocked the world against Whittaker, it would be extremely foolish to count him out again against Adesanya, no matter how absurd it might seem.