Dricus Du Plessis gets his shot at the UFC middleweight title when he takes on champion Sean Strickland in the UFC 297 main event on Jan. 20 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“I literally found out the night before the world found out that this fight was happening,” Du Plessis told Submission Radio. “I actually found out with the rest of the world when the announcement came that this fight his happening. I spoke with Hunter [Campbell]. He phoned me and said, ‘Will I be ready in January, and I said, ‘Yes, I’ll be ready for Jan,’ and he said, ‘Nothing is sure yet’ and he’s going to talk to Dana and see what’s up and the’ll let me know. The next day I woke up and they made the announcement, so for me, it was just as big of a surprise as everybody else. I literally found out a day before.
“I always had the feeling, I had this feeling the whole time, maybe it’s because I already made up my mind, I’m not going to beg for a title shot,” continued Du Plessis. “If they don’t want to give me a title shot, cool, I’ll just beat another Top 5 guy and that’s going to make my move up to 205 easier. I was in this space where I already made peace with the fact that if they don’t want to give me a title shot, great, who’s my next opponent. That’s where my mind was at.”
Du Plessis is coming off TKO win over former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Almost everyone was picking Whittaker to win, but quickly found out that there’s a new contender in the division.
“That was the closest I’ve got to fighting, since being in the UFC, the way that I think I can,” Du Pless said about the Whittaker fight. “Obviously against a guy like Sean Strickland, I said this with Whittaker as well, I have to be perfect in order to beat Whittaker and I was perfect enough to beat him. For this fight I’m stepping it up one more, stepping up and being even more perfect and coming in there more prepared and making sure that every single thing I do will be perfect. There is no room for error if you’re fighting for a world title. There is no room for error at the top of the sport because one mistake can cost you a fight and I won’t let that happen.”
Looking to the fight with Strickland, Du Plessis believes it’s going to come down to one thing, who can impose their will on the other.
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“I have my style of fighting and he has his style of fighting. In our fight it’s going to be the guy who imposes his will and fights his fight the best. That’s going to be the winner and that’s going to be me,” he said.
“His defense is ugly. It’s very weird but it’s effective. I think he deflects shots beautifully and I think irritating is a good style. It’s always pushing something out there and it’s such a different style. I don’t think he has a that crazy knockout power but he does have qualities. If you’re fighting on his pace I promise you you’re going to lose that fight.
“If you’re going to fight his pace, and Israel Adesanya fought his pace. He walks forward. He makes people tentative sometimes because he’s slipping punches all the time. With that being said, I don’t think to fight his pace is a smart move. I know I’m more athletic. I know I’m stronger physically and using that to my advantage, making sure I hit harder but making sure that every shot I throw lands… I need one shot. I need to land one shot. If [Alex] Pereira can knock him out I can knock him out even better.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/dricus-du-plessis-if-alex-pereira-can-knock-him-out-i-can-knock-him-out-better
