Dricus du Plessis defeated Kamaru Usman via a unanimous points decision after dominating their main event clash at UFC Fight Night 281 in Oklahoma earlier this morning (July 19), reports Pretoria Rekord.

The clinical performance against the UFC legend puts the former champion back on track to regaining his middleweight world title.

Du Plessis controls early rounds

The fight started quite slowly, but Du Plessis won the first round easily as he lured Usman forward and struck at will.

By the second round, the Pretoria fighter was in full control of the action, hurting Usman a few times and missing a chance or two to end the fight.

There was speculation beforehand that Usman – a wrestling specialist – would have to take the fight to the ground if he wanted to have a chance of winning. He tried a few times in the second round, but Du Plessis was simply too strong and parried his attempts.

In the third round, Usman managed to take Du Plessis to the ground once, but the South African rose quickly to his feet, preventing any chance of being pinned down.

After the fourth round, Usman’s trainer told him bluntly that he would have to ‘finish’ the fight to win, as Du Plessis was far ahead on points after inflicting a lot of punishment.

Usman shows resilience in final round

Although Usman gave it his all in the fifth round, he was hit hard by right hooks and kicks with the left foot from Du Plessis a few times early in the round. At one point, it looked like his legs were starting to turn to jelly, but he was able to stay on his feet and keep his reputation as a fighter with a very strong jaw intact.

During an interview in the fighting cage directly after the action, Du Plessis said that one of the most important aspects of the fight was that he managed to maintain his composure and not become careless every time he hurt Usman with powerful punches and left-foot kicks.

“Dricus 2.0 is here and I’m ready to take back my belt as champion,” he said in the cage.

He also complimented his opponent for his toughness and the fact that he was able to endure so much punishment but still managed to finish strong.

“He has the toughest head I’ve ever come across in my career,” Du Plessis emphasised.

Trilogy bout with Strickland looms

By all indications, the chances are good that the world might see a third UFC middleweight title fight between the MMA superstar from Pretoria and Sean Strickland from America later this year or early next year.

In May this year, Strickland delegated Russian Khamzat Chimaev, who dethroned Du Plessis as UFC middleweight champion in August last year, to take over the title.

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