Dricus du Plessis: SA’s one-man Springbok team gets his shot at UFC glory

He is a one-man Springbok team hoping to emulate what Siya Kolisi and Co did a few months back.

South Africa’s very own Dricus du Plessis will be fighting for one of the most prestigious accolades in mixed martial arts (MMA) when he fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title in Canada in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The man affectionately known as “Stillknocks” — a very strong sleeping tablet — will be taking on the American champion Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC297 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Kickboxing

The 30-year-old from Pretoria was born on 14 January 1994 and is widely regarded as the best MMA fighter to have ever come from South Africa.

Du Plessis’ road to his fighting career began at the age of five when he started his training in judo, followed by wrestling at 12 and then kickboxing at 14.

His kickboxing career took off almost immediately when, at the age of 17, he became the first South African to win a medal at the World Championships when he claimed gold in the K1 style in 2012.

This was where his kickboxing career ended and his MMA career began.

After only three amateur MMA fights he made his professional debut in 2013 and quickly raced to a perfect 4-0 record, which earned him a title shot in the Extreme Fight Championship (EFC) — South Africa’s premier MMA organisation.

He faced the daunting task of facing MMA legend and then middleweight champion Garreth “Soldierboy” McLellan at EFC33, which was a bridge too far for the 20-year-old Du Plessis as he lost via a guillotine choke submission in the third round.

‘Thrown into the deep end’

“I was thrown into the deep end there. I was just a kid. It was a sink or swim moment,” Du Plessis told The Citizen this week.

“I was training once, maybe twice a day and after the fight I realised this is a full-time job. This is a professional sport and you are a company and you need to run it as such.

“It also made me realise that, win or lose, it is how you fight at the end of the day. I had more fans after that loss than I had in any win before that and it made me fall in love with the sport all over again.”

Following this setback at middleweight, Du Plessis turned his focus to the lighter welterweight division.

His debut in the division was against another legend, Dino Bagattin, at EFC40 where he gained an impressive submission victory.

Three fights later and it was time for another title shot. In his way was veteran striker Martin van Staden at EFC50 for the vacant welterweight strap, where Du Plessis won via guillotine choke submission in the third round.

Now an MMA world champion, Du Plessis wanted more of a challenge.

Two titles

Along with successfully defending his welterweight crown at EFC59, he turned his attention back to the middleweight division at EFC62, just three months later.

It was here where he made history, becoming the first EFC fighter to hold two titles at the same time when he choked out England’s Yannick Bahati in a fight filled with bad blood. It was at this moment where the rest of the world finally started taking notice.

Europe was next on the agenda and Du Plessis found his way to Polish organisation KSW where he claimed the middleweight title.

In 2019 Du Plessis officially relinquished his EFC welterweight title to focus on middleweight and in December of that year he’d fight his last fight in the organisation.

Du Plessis took on surprise title contender Brendan Lesar at EFC83 and in a masterclass of MMA fighting he dispatched his opponent with a guillotine choke in the first round.

UFC

It really was only a matter of time before the UFC would stand up and take notice.

Little did he and the rest of the MMA fraternity know how meteoric and fast this rise would be.

Starting with his UFC debut in October 2020 — a first round knockout of Brazilian Markus Perez — Du Plessis has been impressive and destructive.

Next up was a performance of the night showing — which came with a $50,000 bonus — against American Trevin Giles which ended with a second round knockout.

As his star began to grow, he started shooting up the rankings and with three more wins — against Brad Tavares, Darren Till and Derek Brunson — he found himself in the top-5 in the division.

Next up would be by far the biggest and toughest fight of his life in former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker of Australia at UFC290.

Du Plessis went into this fight as a big betting underdog, but this did not deter him as he produced a shock when he knocked out the Aussie in the second round to earn him the title of No 1 contender and another cheque for $50,000.

Du Plessis was supposed to face Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight championship at UFC293 but he decided not to fight due to a leg injury, and was replaced by Strickland, who went on to shock Adesanya, and fast forward to 20 January, this weekend, and Du Plessis now finally gets his chance at UFC glory.

A win in Toronto could see the UFC bringing an event to South Africa in what will no doubt be the biggest combat sports event the country has ever seen.

Dricus du Plessis v Sean Strickland is available on DStv Access at 5am tomorrow on SuperSport Variety 4 (209) in three different South African languages: English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.