Dricus du Plessis and Kamaru Usman are fighting on Saturday, but what they’re fighting for remains to be seen.
Both former champions, a DDP vs. Usman fight wasn’t on most people’s radars until a few months ago, when the rumors started to swirl. After all, Usman was still lobbying for a welterweight title fight, while du Plessis was fresh off losing his middleweight title, and would seemingly want to get right back into the mix. Does a win over a former welterweight champion put du Plessis any closer to the middleweight title? And does a win over du Plessis help Usman’s welterweight title claim? Only time will tell.
That’s not the only middleweight action this weekend, though, as the co-main event features former title challenger Jared Cannonier attempting to battle back Father Time and the surging Christian Leroy Duncan. Despite his age, “Killa Gorilla” continues to show he’s still got gas left in the tank, but will “CLD” be a bridge too far for him?
What: UFC Oklahoma City
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City
When: Saturday, July 18. The seven-fight preliminary card begins at 5 p.m. ET, followed by a five-fight main card at 8 p.m. ET with the entire event streaming live on Paramount+.
(Numbers in parentheses indicate standing in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings and Pound-for-Pound Rankings)
Dricus du Plessis (3 MW, P4P-5) vs. Kamaru Usman (10 WW)
Unlike last week’s main event, it’s not hard to see how Usman can pull off the upset against du Plessis. While Usman is getting up there in years, he remains a powerful wrestler and grappler, and du Plessis proved woefully incompetent at preventing that sort of attack from Khamzat Chimaev in his most recent fight. Is Usman the same fighter as Chimaev? No. But he can hold fighters down like a weighted blanket, and if du Plessis hasn’t worked on that part of his game, it could be a big problem.
That being said, it’s still obvious why DDP is the betting favorite over Usman. Aside from appearing to be much larger, du Plessis is in the prime of his career, and Usman most certainly is not. On the feet, du Plessis has significantly more tools available to him and has looked much more dangerous striking than Usman ever has. So if he can keep things standing, he likely runs away with things.
The big question is: what kind of fight will it be? After rewatching the DDP-Chimaev fight several times, the conclusion I’ve come to is that Chimaev simply brought a physicality to bear that du Plessis was unable to handle. After all, he is usually the one hossing his opponents around, and so it broke him. Prime Usman could present a real threat in this manner, but, nearing 40 years old, I don’t think he’s the same sort of problem for du Plessis.
Pick: Du Plessis
Jared Cannonier (14-MW) vs. Christian Leroy Duncan
Honestly, my breakdown for this one shares many similarities with the main event — there’s a younger, physically imposing fighter in the prime of his career, taking on an accomplished veteran who, in his prime, probably wins this fight.
Cannonier is destined to be a fighter that future generations forget about entirely, despite having several good wins and a generally fun style to watch. But “Killa Gorilla” never won The Big One, and so his late-career performances don’t get the love that someone like Dustin Poirier or Justin Gaethje gets.
At his best, Cannonier was a thunderous puncher with underrated wrestling and surprising craft to his game. And despite being in his 40s, most of that is still in there. Cannonier is physically declining, but he’s not washed yet, and he’s tactically sharp — just ask Gregory Rodrigues. But every fight, he starts getting hit a little bit more and hurt a little bit easier. At some point, the bill comes due.
Duncan is not the most refined or brilliant fighter in the world, but he’s got solid fundamentals, explosive power, and significantly more speed at this stage of his career. Duncan’s movement and speed will be huge problems for Cannonier to navigate, and he’ll be forced to simply look for counters, which he’s less likely to land than ever, and all the while, Duncan’s power shots loom.
Pick: Duncan
Chase Hooper vs. Mitch Ramirez
This fight had an interesting wrinkle added on Friday morning when Hooper, for the first time in his career, missed weight, coming in 1.5 pounds over the limit. Given that he didn’t look too terrible when he weighed in, methinks this might just be another advantage for Hooper on fight night.
And Hooper already has plenty of those. While Hooper isn’t a world-beater, the man is a slick and dangerous grappler, and Mitch Ramirez is not an especially good defensive wrestler. And by that, I mean he’s bad at it. There’s a reason Hooper is getting a guy who lost on Contender Series and is 0-2 in the promotion. This is a setup fight for Hooper.
Pick: Hooper
Tabatha Ricci (10-SW) vs. Fatima Kline (14-SW)
This is arguably the most important fight on this card outside of the main event, because while there aren’t many bright spots in women’s MMA these days, Kline has certainly been one of them.
After losing her UFC debut at flyweight, Kline dropped down to 115 pounds, where she’s rattled off three in a row, including two by finish. That’s a rare enough thing in WMMA these days, and even more rarely, she’s just 26 years old. Kline seems destined to become a future UFC champion at this rate, and that likely continues against Ricci.
Ricci has been a stalwart of the strawweight Top 15 for half a decade at this point, but she’s small for the division and lacks any true standout skill to separate her from her more talented peers. She will look tiny compared to Kline, and unless she can lay-and-pray for 15 minutes, this seems like a bad night for “Baby Shark.”
Pick: Kline
Tommy McMillen vs. Alberto Montes
What is there to say about this fight other than it’s going to be a car crash?
McMillen trains with Sean O’Malley, but other than tattoos, McMillen is basically bizarro “Suga,” foregoing savvy, range striking and “defense” to just collide with opponents. It’s an undeniably fun style, but it does raise a question as to how good he is.
And Montes is cut from a similar cloth. He’s extremely offensively potent, and fights a bit like a crazed version of Charles Oliveira, meaning these two are just going to smash into each other like a six-year-old’s action figures. I’ll side with Montes as slightly more polished, but this is a coin flip.
Pick: Montes
Preliminaries
Austin Bashi def. Jose Miguel Delgado
Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani def. SeokHyeon Ko
Levi Rodrigues Jr. def. Felipe Franco
Damien Anderson def. Ezra Elliot
Alden Coria def. Stewart Nicoll
Alvin Hines def. RJ Harris
Dione Barbosa def. Anna Melisano
