After his triumphant win of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) middleweight title, winning against Sean Strickland of the USA on the 20th of January in Canada – Dricus Du Plessis said that he was happy to be back in South Africa and that his reception at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg was “insane.”
In an interview with SuperSport, Du Plessis stated that it was incredible to see the nation celebrating his individual victory, but also celebrating “this achievement for South Africa.”
Dricus Du Plessis’ UFC title win is monumental – “for the first time in history, there are UFC champions representing every continent apart from Antarctica.”
In his SuperSport interview, Du Plessis claimed that after their intense battle inside the octagon, Sean Strickland admitted to him, “You definitely beat me. You deserve it, you won that fight, you beat me.”
Du Plessis has been coached by Morne Visser for a number of years and trains at the CIT Performance Institute gym in Hatfield, Pretoria. Promising UFC bantamweight fighter Cameron Saaiman trains alongside Du Plessis and has been his protégé since he was a teenager. Saaiman won his first four fights in the UFC and has been called “the future” by Dana White, the president of the UFC.
In the future, Du Plessis is hopeful that a UFC event will take place in South Africa. He said that “We have the ability, we have the coaches and we have the team and the fight to compete with the best in the world.” He commented that “There’s one thing about South Africa that I think, [if and when] the UFC goes there, the whole world is going to see: You have never felt the vibe when it comes to sport like [in] South Africa.”
There are currently no arenas in the country capable of hosting an event of this magnitude, though.
Dricus Du Plessis has certainly boosted the popularity of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in the country and it looks hopeful that he could blaze the trail for UFC fights to take place in the country.
Read more about the title fight here: https://explain.co.za/2024/01/19/will-undefeated-south-african-mma-fighter-dricus-du-plessis-make-ufc-history/
Image accreditation: SuperSport on YouTube
