Dricus du Plessis finally shuts American Sean Strickland’s big mouth at UFC312
The international and local enemies and critics of Pretoria's UFC world champion will have to accept that this MMA superstar is not going to disappear from their radar anytime soon, after he placed all the sideshows in the background in Australia on Sunday morning and did what he does best when he gave his American challenger, Sean Strickland, a proper beating in their middleweight title fight.
If Pretoria’s own UFC middleweight champion, Dricus “Stillknocks du Plessis”, wasn’t a global superstar before Sunday morning, he is now.
Forget the mockery about his good relationship with his coach, his loudmouthed opponent’s swearing and “Dutchman”-insults and the moaning of the anti-Trump gang in South Africa about the public respect Du Plessis showed to the American president.
STILL THE CHAMP 🏆🏆🏆@DricusDuPlessis extends his win streak to NINE with his second successful title defense! #UFC312 pic.twitter.com/fzNPS5eNEv
— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2025
Early Sunday morning (SA time), Sean Strickland’s supporters had to eat humble pie and those who wanted to make South Africa’s world champion a political puppet also had to hang their heads in shame, because this popular MMA fighter stayed focused and did what he does best – he took on the loud, foul mouthed American at his strongest point and taught him a proper lesson.
Strickland, who is known in the UFC hexagon as a fighter who likes to stay on his feet and use his boxing technique to overwhelm his opponent, was the one who looked like he was in an altercation with a predator after five killer rounds at the UFC 312 event in the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Photo: X
The Strickland camp’s big mistake in preparing for this fight was that they underestimated the Du Plessis team again. They probably expected the champion from Pretoria to be desperate to take his opponent to the ground, but they seem to have forgotten that before his MMA career he was a successful kickboxing champion with an amateur record of 33 wins and 0 losses.
Du Plessis started to pepper Strickland with kicks to his body early on, while he fought on the front foot and regularly landed punches to his challenger’s head and body.
Feels good to be a champion 🏆#UFC312 | #AndStill pic.twitter.com/42Oc9pled3
— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2025
Although Du Plessis dominated the fight from the start and the judges’ verdict was unanimous, the scales probably finally tipped in the Pretoria fighter’s favour when he broke Strickland’s nose in the fourth round.
In the last round, the American tried hard to save the fight by attacking in the hope of a knockout, but Du Plessis was prepared for this as well and his defence was first class.
This was Du Plessis’ second successful defence of his UFC middleweight title, while he remains undefeated after nine fights in the ranks of this international spectacle.
Dricus Du Plessis has normalised moering this guy🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/NmXSktOPrR
— Sir Cabonena Alfred (@Lebona_cabonena) February 9, 2025
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