Before becoming the fighting pride of South Africa, Dricus Du Plessis had doubts regarding his fighting career, almost giving it up to pursue another career.
As do many UFC champions, Dricus Du Plessis‘ summit to the top of the middleweight division didn’t come easily and came with a lot of early adversity in his career.
Ahead of his UFC 312 title defense against Sean Strickland this coming Saturday, the South African champion has given his five-man GOAT list and he will be hoping to continue his own form, potentially putting himself in GOAT talks in the future.
Dricus Du Plessis almost gave up fighting to pursue a career in Rugby
‘Stillknocks’ is the first champion in UFC history to train and reside in Africa and that was the topic that caused his huge feud with Israel Adesanya.
When he got into professional MMA in 2013, the sport of MMA would still have been relatively unknown in the continent. The national sport in South Africa is Rugby Union, something Du Plessis was a big fan of growing up.
However, he wasn’t just a fan of Rugby and he used to play Rugby alongside his MMA career in the early days. Ahead of his second UFC title defense, the 31-year-old has revealed that he almost gave up his MMA career when he came to a crossroads.
“I played Rugby, I wanted to pursue Rugby as a career, I played competitive Rugby with both my brothers since I was 5 years old,” Du Plessis began to explain to Triple M.
“I played under 19’s, played provincial teams, and yeah, then I had to make that decision, am I gonna play Rugby or fight?
“And right there, as I said, especially fighting locally in South Africa, what are you gonna do for money? Because I got a scholarship to go and play Rugby and study at the University of Pretoria, I had to say no.
“I went studying but I had to go, ‘Dad, I wanna fight so I’m not gonna play Rugby’, he asked what I was gonna do for money and I said, ‘Fighting’,” Du Plessis admitted.
Fortunately for the MMA world, ‘Stillknocks’ made the decision to drop his promising Rugby career and pursue MMA. His decision was justified in 2020 when he was handed his UFC debut and subsequently won the title last year.
Dricus Du Plessis eyeing a potential future fight against Alex Pereira
Strickland announced not long ago that UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira will be part of his corner team for UFC 312.
When Du Plessis was listing his current GOAT list, he left out ‘Poatan’ despite labeling him as ‘one of the best combat sports athletes to ever live’.
The middleweight champion has admitted that his reason for omitting the Brazilian is because he sees him as a future rival and believes they may one day meet inside the cage.
In this era of MMA, many fighters believe their legacy hinges on whether they can become double champions and Du Plessis has previously teased at wanting to complete that feat before his career is done.