Not that they ever knew it, but there was at least one time where the oddsmakers might have been right to doubt UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis.
That time was just a little over a year ago, back when he was getting ready to fight former UFC champ Robert Whittaker at UFC 290. At the time it was, by far, the biggest fight of du Plessis’ career. And if the oddsmakers had known he was effectively doing it on one foot, the +300 underdog line on du Plessis to win might have ballooned much higher.
“It was literally my last session before we flew out, I completely tore the ligaments in my ankle,” du Plessis told Yahoo Sports. “I couldn’t kick. It was 18 days. I didn’t kick once. I could barely even walk after that session and the next day I was set to fly out to Vegas.”
This is where a lot of people would say you should consider calling it off. Slightly over two weeks out from a fight with the man who, at that point, had never lost a UFC middleweight fight to anyone not named Israel Adesanya, and you’re hobbling through the airport to make your flight? Forget it. Du Plessis was already a long shot in many people’s eyes even when they assumed he was totally healthy.
But du Plessis was adamant about staying in the fight for two reasons. One, his coach Morne Visser had come up with a good game plan for targeting Whittaker’s weaknesses, convincing du Plessis that fighting out of the southpaw stance was his key to defeating the former champ. And two? After all the work he’d put in and all the fights he’d won just to get there, du Plessis truly believed.
“I said, ‘I’m already fit. I don’t need that foot to win the fight,’” du Plessis said.
Turned out he was right, of course. So was his coach. In the second round of their title eliminator, du Plessis stunned Whittaker with a short right hand out of the southpaw stance, then poured on the punishment to become just the second middleweight to ever stop Whittaker in the UFC.
A title fight with then-champion Adesanya seemed inevitable, so much so that the UFC brought the champ into the cage for a memorable post-fight faceoff. But when the UFC wanted him to make a quick two-month turnaround for that bout in order to make the date already set for Australia, du Plessis declined in order to give his injured ankle time to heal.
The UFC, as is often the case, went ahead with the scheduled card — even without the man who’d just won the right to be called the top contender. This made it a risky move for du Plessis, but also a necessary one from a medical perspective. Besides, he reasoned, even if he had to win another fight to get back to the title, he would. Once again, he believed.
“When I declined that fight I was getting ready for another contender fight,” du Plessis said. “I thought the UFC was going to be pissed off at me. And I honestly think they were kind of pissed off, but it worked out great for them.”
That part is hard to deny. With du Plessis out of that title fight, Sean Strickland stepped in to fight Adesanya. He even pulled off a massive upset of his own, defeating Adesanya via decision before losing the belt to du Plessis in his next fight.
And so now the wheel has completed another turn, with du Plessis and Adesanya set to fight for the title in Australia. This time it’s Perth rather than Sydney. This time it’s UFC 305 rather than UFC 293. And this time it’s du Plessis rather than Adesanya who has the belt around his waist.
One thing that’s remained the same? Once again, du Plessis opened as the betting underdog. Even with a perfect record inside the UFC and the middleweight gold around his waist, you can still feel the palpable doubt wafting off the MMA community as a whole.
All these fights we’ve seen him win, and still there’s this lingering feeling. Like, he can’t really be that good, can he? I mean, this guy?
Ask him about it, and du Plessis will tell you he doesn’t mind. The betting odds don’t change the facts of a fight once the cage door shuts, he pointed out. All it means is that his friends make more money when betting on him, du Plessis said.
Still, there’s something about this Adesanya fight that has a final boss sort of aura to it. As the on-again, off-again champion, he’s been the most dominant force in the division for the last five years. He’s also made this title fight personal, criticizing the South African du Plessis for past remarks about being the UFC’s first champion to be born, trained and competing from a home base on the African continent.
Adesanya, who was born in Nigeria but raised primarily in New Zealand, has criticized du Plessis for having “a colonist mindset.”
“I want him to take accountability for his remarks,” Adesanya told TMZ Sports recently. He added that du Plessis’ apparent confusion over the anger his comments caused among other African UFC fighters suggested he “doesn’t understand the error of his ways — but I will show him the way.”
During Adesanya’s time as champ, he captured the imagination of fans in a way that du Plessis hasn’t been able to manage yet. He had an almost Jedi-like quality to him that made him seem like a fitting heir to the title Anderson Silva held for so long.
Du Plessis, on the other hand? He just has an “awkward” style, according to fans and other fighters. He keeps winning, but for how long?
That narrative might stick up to a point. But if du Plessis can go into enemy territory and defend his title against Adesanya, the MMA world might have to adjust to a new reality in which this man is really and truly the champ. If he can slay the Adesanya dragon, maybe then people will be forced to stop doubting him.
Coming face to face with Adesanya again this week should be interesting, du Plessis said, especially after what happened last time.
“Because up until this point, in terms of the energy that we’re used to (from Adesanya) and what we’re seeing right now, he doesn’t look like a man who’s ready to kill to get that belt,” du Plessis said. “And I’m ready to kill to keep it.”
