They say all is fair in love and war.

Last Saturday night (or Sunday morning) in Perth, Australia a bad-tempered, fractious buildup to the UFC 305 middleweight title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya ended with the two combatants embracing in the cage minutes after the South African successfully defended his title via fourth-round rear naked choke submission.

The fight put a cap on a more than year-long rivalry between the two African-born world champions and now that the dust has settled, Adesanya has again emphasised that any bad feelings that existed between them had melted away in their almost 20 minutes in the cage.

“Oh, he just gave me a lot of props, a lot of love, a lot of respect,” Adesanya said of the fight on his personal YouTube channel, as noted by MMA News.

Adding of their discussions in the cage post fight, Adesanya said: “I accepted it and I shook his hand. Then, after his interview, when we were leaving the cage, we just talked. He said ‘sorry,’ maybe, I can’t remember, but he just gave me a lot of props.

“He said, ‘Hey, you know, I’m a big fan,’ and of course, I was like, ‘I know.’ And I said, ‘Look, look how far we’ve come from way back then—who would have thought? Now we’re here.’ I was like, ‘f*ck yeah,’ and then we hugged. I said, ‘Look, I respect you, I appreciate you.’ I don’t think DDP is a bad person. I don’t know him. Again, we’re not friends, we don’t know each other, but we can be cool. We’re cool, and I respect him.

“It was never beef. Again, when I say beef, it’s just like you have to fight someone—you don’t have to like them. You don’t have to like them. Again, he didn’t like me, I didn’t like him, but I think now we have a healthy respect for each other. I won’t say we’re BFFs or we’re friends, but if I see him, it’s love. I’ll give him a hug, I’ll dap him up.”