Dricus du Plessis is back and better than ever.
At UFC Oklahoma City on Saturday night, du Plessis got back in the win column, beating up former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman over 25 minutes. While du Plessis was unable to finish Usman, the former middleweight champion rocked “The Nigerian Nightmare” several times in the fight, and mostly dominated the action en route to winning a clear unanimous decision.
The win was du Plessis’s first since losing his middleweight title to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319, and “Stillknocks” says he delivered exactly the sort of performance he was hoping for to show he’s grown since that loss.
“I felt completely in that flow state tonight,” du Plessis said at the post-fight press conference. “I felt I did everything that we trained. And yeah, it felt great. Every round felt like it was mine. And I’m so happy that I got to showcase takedown defense. I’m glad I got taken down once, and I could show that, even if you get that, you’re not holding me down. The game plan worked perfectly. Me and my team, my coach, we worked on this game plan. It was perfect. I think it was the perfect plan. I don’t think I could have done it better.
“The big thing was obviously, I could have gone for that finish, but the big thing about that was to go improve. I said ‘Stillknocks’ 2.0 is here. Part of that was showing the composure, not just going crazy. And every time I caught him, I could have gone crazy and go for that finish, but I basically had four or five finishes tonight.”
But despite his dominance, du Plessis was also quick to give Usman his flowers, saying it was “crazy” how fast Usman was able to recover every time he got hurt. And he also put to bed any lingering discussions about the once-upon-a-time feud between du Plessis and the Three African Kings, having now beaten both Usman and Israel Adesanya.
“I think it’s all respect,” du Plessis said. “With me and Izzy, that whole thing got out of context. I think we have so much respect for each other after sharing the octagon. I have respect for any man, and after being in there with Usman tonight for five rounds, that man deserves all the flowers in the world for the career that he has had. So does Adesanya. These are incredible, incredible athletes. And we, as Africans, we inspire our whole continent. And there’s not a lot of us in the UFC, especially at this level at the top. It’s only been an honor. I mean, tonight was the second time ever that it’s been an all-Africa main event. And I’ve had the honor of being part of both of those, and that’s a massive honor.
“Beef? There is no beef. We represent our continent, and we do so very proudly. There was no beef in there tonight. It was two warriors going at it, and I think we showed that to the world.”
As for what comes next for du Plessis, the former champion is hoping for a title shot, dismissing the idea of Khamzat Chimaev getting an immediate rematch as “absolutely” ridiculous, and outlining why he deserves the first crack at Sean Strickland instead of Nassourdine Imavov.
“I beat [Strickland] twice, and I don’t even know if Imavov is still fighting,” du Plessis said. “Is he? Is he still fighting, Imavov? It’s been a while.”
