The challenger had some questions to answer heading into UFC 297 in January last year.
Despite people questioning his technical ability, Dricus du Plessis made himself undeniable in the UFC’s middleweight division which has led him all the way to UFC 312 on February 8.
The South African contender continued to finish each opponent that was put in front of him to work his way towards his first title shot.
Aside from his win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, du Plessis wasn’t getting the credit he deserved for his wins and a big part of that was down to his conditioning.
Going five rounds against a pressure fighter like Sean Strickland would be the ultimate test of that and after the final bell sounded, got his his arm raised to become the new 185-pound champion.
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Dricus du Plessis says he proved to himself in his first fight with Sean Strickland that he can go five rounds
In 24 pro fights, Dricus du Plessis has only ever gone to the scorecards on two occasions, when he beat Sean Strickland and when he earned his third UFC win over Brad Tavares.
The expectation heading into UFC 297 was that he would start fast with Strickland having the advantage later on in the fight but ‘Stillknocks’ anticipated this and tried to flip it on its head by staying composed for the first few rounds.
In a recent interview with talkSPORT, du Plessis spoke about his growing confidence in the third round where he believes that his opponent started to realize that he wasn’t going anywhere.
The championship rounds were always going to be pivotal and the challenger ended up winning the fourth on all three scorecards despite all of the talk around him gassing out in previous fights.
“When the fourth round came around, this is the first time in my whole career I go to a fourth round. I felt like I was on a cloud, I felt invincible. I felt fresher than I did before the fight started. I thought, now we can fight and that fourth round was by far my best round.”
Du Plessis’ cardio was also on show in his first title defense against Israel Adesanya where once again, the fourth round proved to be decisive as he seemingly rallied and submitted his opponent at UFC 305.
The champion is now confident that he can match anyone’s pace.
“I had to prove to the world, to myself, that I can go five rounds and go as hard as I can for five rounds.”
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Dricus du Plessis surprised people at UFC 297
In his first fight with Sean Strickland, Dricus du Plessis didn’t completely reinvent himself in order to throw his opponent completely off but he did show some adjustments.
‘Stillknocks’ was able to use a variety of techniques to land more effective shots on his opponent without bundling towards him with reckless abandon.
Strickland and his team now know that du Plessis isn’t going to empty out his gas tank all by himself but he does throw big and explosive shots from bell to bell.
Measuring his output and cardio will be key for the champion once again at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on Saturday night.