Dricus Du Plessis worked his way toward the top until only one man stood between him and the Ultimate Fighting Championship penthouse at 185 pounds.
The 29-year-old South African will challenge Sean Strickland for the undisputed middleweight title when their five-round confrontation headlines UFC 297 on Jan. 20 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Du Plessis enters the Octagon on the strength of a career-best eight-fight winning streak that now spans more than five years. He has secured 19 of his 20 professional victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission, giving him a prodigious 95% finish rate.
As Du Plessis moves ever closer to his forthcoming clash with Strickland, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped chart his course to this point:
Garreth McLellan
“Soldier Boy” leaned on his guile and experience to retain the Extreme Fighting Championship middleweight title, as he choked Du Plessis unconscious with a third-round guillotine in their EFC 33 main event on Aug. 30, 2014 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa. McLellan slammed the door 2:12 into Round 3. Champion and challenger pushed themselves to the brink of exhaustion and beyond in a thrilling back-and-forth battle. McLellan seized the reins in Round 2, where he twice achieved full mount, progressed to the back and flattened out his counterpart before threatening with a series of rear-naked chokes. Du Plessis managed to survived but only delayed the inevitable. McLellan struck for a takedown inside the first 15 seconds of the third round, floated between side control and north-south position, forced a scramble and bit down on the choke. Du Plessis did all he could to free himself, then lost his grip on reality. Even in defeat, he showed flashes of the brilliance that would one day make him one of the top middleweights in the sport.
Martin van Staden
Du Plessis laid claim to the vacant Extreme Fighting Championship welterweight crown and did so in decisive fashion when he put away van Staden with a guillotine choke in the third round of their EFC 50 headliner on June 17, 2016 at Sun City Resort in Sun City, South Africa. The end came 3:59 into Round 3. Du Plessis deployed a hyperactive bottom game to counteract a van Staden takedown in the first round, then surprised “The Punisher” by bullying him to the mat in the second. Once there, he attacked the body and head with a string of sharp elbows. They exchanged takedowns and attempted brabo chokes to start Round 3, though Du Plessis ultimately gained the upper hand. He moved into top position, battered van Staden with kneeling ground-and-pound and cinched the fight-ending choke, cutting off all possible avenues of escape. It was part of an eight-fight winning streak that put Du Plessis on the map as a true person of interest in his native South Africa.
Roberto Soldic
The Croatian marauder exacted some revenge when he punched out Du Plessis and captured the Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki welterweight championship for a second time in the third round of their KSW 45 showcase on Oct. 6, 2018 at Wembley Arena in London. Soldic drew the curtain 2:33 into Round 3, a little less than six months after he had bowed to punches from the South African in their first meeting. Du Plessis probed for openings with leg kicks and cut loose with intermittent punching bursts but failed to move “Robocop” off his mark. The stoic Soldic took a patient and measured approach, picked his spots and cut off attempted takedowns with an effective sprawl. He dazed Du Plessis with an overhand left in the third round and pinned him to the fence with punches and knees before electing to reset in open space. Soldic then uncorked a clubbing left hook, followed it with a plunging knee to the body and sat down the Team CIT standout with another concussive left upstairs. There was no refuge for Du Plessis, as more unanswered punches fell and prompted the stoppage.
Robert Whittaker
Du Plessis took his final step toward title contention in the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division when he put down Robert Whittaker with punches in the second round of their featured UFC 290 attraction on July 8, 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Whittaker succumbed to blows 2:23 into Round 2. “Bobby Knuckles” handled his business initially with a clean jab and effective counters, only to lose his way near the conclusion of the first round. Du Plessis secured a takedown and paired it with a slashing elbow strike that opened a serious cut near the former champion’s right eye. Whittaker was never the same. Du Plessis stunned him with a straight right in the middle stanza and forced the New Zealand native to a knee under a barrage of follow-up shots to the head and body, leading referee Marc Goddard to step in to prevent unnecessary damage.
More must-reads: