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Dricus du Plessis responds to insult from Steve Erceg

Dricus Du Plessis responds to insult from Steve Erceg Off the back of his spectacular victory at UFC 305 over the course of last weekend, incumbent undisputed middleweight…

Off the back of his spectacular victory at UFC 305 over the course of last weekend, incumbent undisputed middleweight champion, Dricus du Plessis has hit out at fellow main card feature, Steve Erceg – who dropped his own knockout loss to Kai Kara-France in Perth.

du Plessis, the current undisputed middleweight champion, headlined the promotion’s return ‘Downunder’ at UFC 305 over the course of last weekend, turning in a stunning fourth round win over the returning former two-time champion, Israel Adesanya.

Latching onto a fourth round rear-naked choke submission, Dricus du Plessis forced a tap from City Kickboxing star, bringing an end to their high-profile rivalry with a spectacular, definitive stoppage triumph.

And hitting out at a host of fighters in the aftermath of his win against Adesanya, Dricus du Plessis mocked former welterweight title challenger, Darren Till – who claimed he would actually make a return to the Octagon in a bid to dispatch the South African as middleweght champion.

Dricus du Plessis mocks Steve Erceg’s loss at UFC 305

However, on the same card, former flyweight title chaser, Erceg dropped his second consecutive defeat in a blistering opening round knockout loss against the previously mentioned, Kara-France, having pushed champion, Alexandre Pantoja the distance over the course of five rounds at UFC 301 in May in a trip to Brazil.

Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya UFC 305 KISS

And mocking Perth favorite, Erceg for his claims that du Plessis was just a “6 out of 10” fighter ahead of UFC 305, the Pretoria native hit out at the flyweight in a his own mocking response on Instagram.

Linked with a slew of fights in his third outing as undisputed middleweight champion, du Plessis has received call outs from light heavyweight gold holder, Alex Pereira – as well as former-foe, Sean Strickland, who has already been pegged as the next challenger to the throne by UFC boss, Dana White.

Israel Adesanya was aiming to finish Dricus Du Plessis in round 4: ‘I was like he is done’

Former two-time middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya claims Dricus du Plessis was there for the taking in the penultimate round…

Former two-time middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya claims Dricus du Plessis was there for the taking in the penultimate round of their UFC 305 title fight – before succumbing to his own submission loss against the South African star.

Adesanya, a former two-time undisputed middleweight champion, suffered a second consecutive defeat for the first time in his storied mixed martial arts career over the course of last weekend at UFC 305 in a return ‘Downunder’.

Dropping a fourth round submission loss to Pretoria native, du Plessis in his bid to become a three-time middleweight titleholder, Adesanya saw his back taken in the first of two championship rounds against the fence after finding himself on the receiving end of a lengthy barrage – before he was forced to tap after being wrapped in a rear-naked choke.

Israel Adesanya claims Dricus du Plessis was “done” at UFC 305

However, despite finding himself down on the judge’s scorecards even midway through the fourth frame, City Kickboxing staple, Adesanya has now claimed du Plessis was “done” in the round – and ready for the taking.

“He’s (Dricus du Plessis) tough, he’s stubborn that is what it is,” Israel Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Even if he’s tired – which one was it – I sprawled on him, was it round four? Beginning of round four, I hit him with one of the meanest sprawls because he just shot and I just put his face into the mat, and boom.”

“I tried to kick his body and then told him to get up,” Israel Adesanya continued. “Marc (Goddard) was like ‘Get up’, and he laid there on the ground and took a breath, and I was like, ‘He is done.’ So I try to go for him.”

Alex Pereira Told Dricus Du Plessis Is The ‘Wrong Guy To Mess With’ After Post-UFC 305 Call-Out

It has taken a long time for Dricus Du Plessis to get the respect that he believes he has always deserved, but his winning streak is becoming undeniable. With eight consecutive wins inside the Octagon, he has now beaten three former middleweight champions in his most recent outings. Finishing both Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, […]

Continue Reading Alex Pereira Told Dricus Du Plessis Is The ‘Wrong Guy To Mess With’ After Post-UFC 305 Call-Out at MMA News.

It has taken a long time for Dricus Du Plessis to get the respect that he believes he has always deserved, but his winning streak is becoming undeniable.

With eight consecutive wins inside the Octagon, he has now beaten three former middleweight champions in his most recent outings.

Finishing both Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, along with going the distance against Sean Strickland, has shown how “Stillknocks” is very effective despite his style not being the most technically sound.

A rematch with Strickland makes a lot of sense for his next title defense given how close their first encounter was but there is also the potential for a huge fight against the champion at the weight class above, in the near future.

Daniel Cormier & Chael Sonnen Agree That Dricus Du Plessis Poses A Threat To Alex Pereira

In order for Du Plessis to add yet another former middleweight champion to his record, he would need to face the current light heavyweight titleholder, Alex Pereira.

At least on paper, many will point to how Du Plessis does tend to fight recklessly at points, which makes a clash with “Poatan” so dangerous for him.

However, after watching what he was able to do against another elite striker in Adesanya this past weekend at UFC 305, Daniel Cormier spoke on the Good Guy / Bad Guy show on ESPN MMA about his intrigue around that potential match-up:

“DDP already said Chael, ‘It doesn’t have to be at ’85, I’m not giving you no excuse. I’ll come to 205 and fight you.’ After watching him, I don’t know that he don’t do well against Alex because of his wrestling and his ability to strike.”

Cormier’s co-host Chael Sonnen agreed with him on this point, stating that we’re still learning what Du Plessis is capable of at this stage.

“Wrong guy to mess with, I mean in all fairness, whatever Alex is seeing in DDP, Alex should know that’s what we all saw in Alex two years ago. We did not understand how great he is.”

Continue Reading Alex Pereira Told Dricus Du Plessis Is The ‘Wrong Guy To Mess With’ After Post-UFC 305 Call-Out at MMA News.

Dricus du Plessis Breaks Down the Strategy That Bested Israel Adesanya at UFC 305

Stillknocks” Dricus du Plessis was able to defeat the former titleholder Israel Adesanya to defend the UFC middleweight world…

Stillknocks” Dricus du Plessis was able to defeat the former titleholder Israel Adesanya to defend the UFC middleweight world championship. The South African and Nigerian-Kiwi had a back-and-forth match in the UFC 305 headliner. Du Plessis broke down the game plan that he and his team used to defeat the expert striker.

Dricus du Plessis Talks Israel Adesanya – UFC 305

The South African athlete Dricus du Plessis has been on an unbeaten run in the UFC middleweight division. Before taking the title from Sean Strickland, he defeated fighters such as Robert Whittaker, Derek Brunson, also Darren Till, and now we can add Israel Adesanya to the list.

With a background in Judo and amateur kickboxing, Dricus du Plessis is a mixed-style fighter but mainly focuses on his grappling. While he is effective on the feet, the real bread and butter of his game in his top position wrestling. Israel Adesanya is a dangerous kickboxer with superb takedown defense so preparing for this fight is a huge challenge.

Speaking to the media, Dricus du Plessis shared what their game plan was coming into the middleweight title bout. Dricus du Plessis explained:

“So every round, you can at the beginning of that round I was standing my ground, but he was in the middle of the octagon, and he was almost dictating. But if you’re not used to fighting like that, you get more tired, if you’re not used fighting with that kind of pressure. And I didn’t back off. I wasn’t fighting on the outside, I just stood my ground. And every round, [with] around two minutes [left] my coach would shout, ‘Listen, it’s time to go!’

“And I would start pushing forward, start pushing forward. That’s when I started getting — every round at the end, I got the success, got the success. And every round, the first bit of the round when he was dictating would be shorter, shorter, shorter. In that fourth round, I landed quite a lot of big shots. The man can take a punch, but you can only take that many.

“I knew, physically, I’m stronger than Israel Adesanya. He is a master at getting back to his feet if you have his back. [Robert] Whittaker had his back many times. How many guys have gotten him down and not been able to do anything with it? So I got him down in the second round, landed a couple of hard shots, and every time he would get back to his feet, I didn’t fight him on it.

“I just kept control of the hits and landed big shots, because he was so focused on my hands on his hips, he wouldn’t protect his face. Land big shots, maybe they’d create a cut, that was what I was hoping for. Land big, big, hard punches, then get him back down to the ground so he has to do all that trouble [again].

“In that fourth, man was staggered from the blows. I could see when he went down, I landed big shots. I didn’t plan on taking him down. I was actually planning on knocking him out [but] body positioning was just that of, the best thing to do right now is take him down. And I could feel as we went to the ground, he wasn’t resisting at all. He was out of it a little, I got the back, and as soon as I straightened him out, it was over.” [Ht MMAFighting]

Sean Strickland’s Coach Expands On Strategy For Dricus Du Plessis Rematch: ‘It’s Gonna Be To The Death!’

The next middleweight title fight would appear to be a rematch of what fight fans saw take place over five rounds in the main event of UFC 297. Dricus Du Plessis won a split decision on that night in January to take the belt from Sean Strickland, following a back-and-forth encounter. After Strickland was able […]

Continue Reading Sean Strickland’s Coach Expands On Strategy For Dricus Du Plessis Rematch: ‘It’s Gonna Be To The Death!’ at MMA News.

The next middleweight title fight would appear to be a rematch of what fight fans saw take place over five rounds in the main event of UFC 297.

Dricus Du Plessis won a split decision on that night in January to take the belt from Sean Strickland, following a back-and-forth encounter.

After Strickland was able to bounce back with a win over Paulo Costa and Du Plessis defended the title against Israel Adesanya this past weekend, a rematch is on the cards.

Given how close it was the first time around, there likely isn’t going to be a big change made by either man that will drastically change the way this one plays out – and that’s how Strickland’s head coach sees it.

Eric Nicksick Says He Expects A Similar Fight With Small ‘Chess Match’ Adjustments

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Eric Nicksick spoke about his expectations for preparing Strickland to face Du Plessis for a second time.

He spoke about how the key to this fight will be focusing on small adjustments because they wouldn’t need to do much different to have won the first encounter.

“There are some things and I’ve said them publicly in the past but there are definitely some things that we went away from that would have helped negate that forward pressure and I still firmly believe had we stayed on those things, we would have won that fight and he didn’t do those things, Sean did not do those things. So, we need to get back to some small little changes.

“There’s some things on the ground that I think we can accomplish as well that I would like to revisit with Sean and yeah. I mean it wasn’t this crazy, crazy, ‘Oh dude, we got our a** kicked’. There was just some small little things but now the fun part is the chess match. What are they going to do to go back and make those adjustments and what are they going to expect us to make our adjustments on, and then there’s that little game of chess now. That’ll be the fun part.”

Nicksick also believes that this first fight is going to look very similar to the UFC 297 headliner because of the styles and toughness of both men.

He can’t see a way that it doesn’t end up being a test of both men’s wills when the going gets tough.

“You would love to say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna go in there and smoke this dude’ but Dricus, he’ll look awful and then he comes back and does his thing so you got to expect a knockdown drag out fight. 2-2 going into round five, hey we’re down to the last five minutes, we’re going to have to dig deep and figure out a way to get this fight, that’s how we have to train, that’s how we have to expect it. It’s going to be to the death.”

Continue Reading Sean Strickland’s Coach Expands On Strategy For Dricus Du Plessis Rematch: ‘It’s Gonna Be To The Death!’ at MMA News.

Tom Aspinall Has High Praise For Dricus Du Plessis After UFC 305: ‘One Of The Smartest Fighters In The UFC’

Count Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall among those majorly impressed by Dricus Du Plessis’ performance Down Under this past weekend. Du Plessis made the walk at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, to put his middleweight gold on the line against the returning Israel Adesanya. The pair met in the UFC 305 main event, […]

Continue Reading Tom Aspinall Has High Praise For Dricus Du Plessis After UFC 305: ‘One Of The Smartest Fighters In The UFC’ at MMA News.

Count Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall among those majorly impressed by Dricus Du Plessis’ performance Down Under this past weekend.

Du Plessis made the walk at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, to put his middleweight gold on the line against the returning Israel Adesanya. The pair met in the UFC 305 main event, following an undercard that included standout wins for the likes of Dan Hooker and Kai Kara-France.

“The Last Stylebender” couldn’t make it three wins from three for Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym, with his South African counterpart finding a submission in round four to emerge victorious from a competitive and enthralling headliner.

Having long been doubted owing to his unusual approach to fighting, Du Plessis has no doubt been enjoying his victory lap, laughing at those who spoke ill of his chances against Adesanya.

“Stillknocks” has been getting increased respect and praise from many after successfully defending his gold for the first time, and not many plaudits have come grander than those of the interim heavyweight champ…

Aspinall On Du Plessis’ UFC 305 Win: ‘Just Looked Fantastic Out There’

During a video recently uploaded to his YouTube channel, Aspinall reacted to his promotion’s latest PPV event and the matchup that concluded it inside the RAC Arena.

Aspinall shared a common sentiment when it comes to deciphering what it is about Du Plessis that makes him so effective. Whatever it is, the heavyweight champ is impressed, so much so that he placed the South African among the most intelligent athletes currently competing on MMA’s biggest stage.

“DDP, you can’t count this guy out,” Aspinall said. “I watch fights as a fan, but I also watch fights as a fighter to try and pick up little nuances, and I love to study different styles. For me personally, DDP is a guy who I’m baffled by, in all honesty. I’m completely baffled by his style because you watch him and, to be brutally honest, he looks a little bit inferior to his opponents in terms of technique, but it’s amazing to watch because he obviously isn’t inferior.

“The gameplans that this guy and his coaches are doing are absolutely unbelievable. Me personally, I think he’s one of the smartest fighters in the UFC and his team must be very, very smart as well,” Aspinall continued. “The guy just finds a way to win. He’s extremely physically strong. … He looks a little bit messy, and I’m sure we all can agree on that. But he makes up for it in spirit, his will to win, and persistence. If he doesn’t get what he’s going for, he will keep going and grind his opponents down until he gets it. He just looked fantastic out there (at UFC 305).”

Like Aspinall, plenty have been confused by Du Plessis’ style and continued success, be it more fellow fighters, veteran analysts, or fans.

But the South African has evidently found an approach that works incredibly well for him, and having proved his detractors wrong yet again, perhaps questions surrounding his unorthodox strategies will die down as his title reign continues on its way.

Read More: 5 Positives & 3 Negatives From UFC 305: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya

Continue Reading Tom Aspinall Has High Praise For Dricus Du Plessis After UFC 305: ‘One Of The Smartest Fighters In The UFC’ at MMA News.