Dricus du Plessis walked into the media center at Apex in Las Vegas on July 5 for UFC 290 media day, three days before he was to take on ex-middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at T-Mobile Arena. When du Plessis sat down, he went through a fairly long explanation of how to pronounce his name (Drick-us DO-pless-Ee).
It's safe to say, he won't have to do that again if he wins his next fight.
Du Plessis will challenge Sean Strickland for the middleweight title Saturday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto in the main event of UFC 297. Strickland is a -140 favorite at William Hill sports book, with du Plessis at +120.
The South African veteran, who turned 30 on Sunday, is 20-2 overall in MMA and 6-0 in the UFC. He's reeled off victories in 16 of his last 17 fights. His win over Whittaker was so comprehensive that it prompted some to suggest that Whittaker had reached the end of the line.
Du Plessis wasn't one of those, however. He trained seriously for Whittaker because he knew Whittaker was one of the most dangerous middleweights in the world.
"It's not like he was old and used up," du Plessis said of "Whittaker. "Look at what he'd done. And he was only 32 and so there's only two years between us. He was coming off of a great win [over Marvin Vettori] and no one was saying before [the fight] that he was done. It was only after we fought that anyone thought that."
That was the bout that earned him a title shot, though few expected it to come against Strickland. Israel Adesanya was in the midst of his reign as champion at the time and he entered the Octagon for a staredown with du Plessis after du Plessis trounced Whittaker. But Strickland upset those plans when he shocked the world by defeating Adesanya in October.
Though du Plessis was solid in his first five UFC bouts -- a decision win over Brad Tavares, a submission of Darren Till and TKOs of Markus Perez, Trevin Giles and Derek Brunson -- he was fighting impaired. He had a deviated septum and wasn't able to breathe properly. He was going to get it repaired in 2020 when he was on the regional circuit, but got the call from the UFC and didn't want to pass on the opportunity.
It wasn't until after his impressive win over Brunson did he agree to do the surgery.
"When I was just in my every day life, breathing normally, it was OK and it wasn't really impacting what I could do," he said. "It was when I was pushing myself and under stress where it closed up completely."
Now that it's no longer an issue, he's able to perform at his peak level. And while some got a quick preview of what the fight might be like at UFC 296 when Strickland went after him in the stands and a brief scuffled ensued before security separated them. It all began a day before at the seasonal press conference to announce a bunch of the UFC's spring fights. Du Plessis and Strickland opened respectfully toward each other.
But then the talk got sharper and they began to talk about each other's childhoods. Strickland took exception and went after du Plessis the next night during the main card of UFC 296. But Strickland said Tuesday he spoke to du Plessis and there is no bad blood or ill feeling between them.
Du Plessis shrugged it off as well and said it won't impact the fight, though he did relish in throwing a little jab in Strickland's way, saying he wasn't aware it was a world champion hitting him. He said the tensions grew because as the press conference went on, Strickland disrespected him.
"We were respectful toward each other as it started, but he started to take little shots and get more disrespectful as the thing went on," du Plessis said. "I'm not going to sit there and just let him disrespect me the way he did, so I fired back at him and it impacted him. But it's fine. It's over, as far as I'm concerned. I don't have to go on and on with it. I made my point, and we're going to fight. The [UFC 296 scuffle] was not my doing, but it's in the past and I've moved on."
He'll get to hit Strickland, and get hit in return, for 25 minutes or less on Saturday in a huge night for South African mixed martial arts. He's bidding to become the first UFC champion from South Africa and just the fourth from the continent following Adesanya, Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman.
Du Plessis was the South African-based Extreme Fighting Championship's middleweight title-holder before he signed with the UFC. He was a young teen-ager when he saw an EFC fight and decided he wanted to be a fighter. Now, 15 or so years later, he wants to inspire the next generation of South African fighters to follow in his footsteps.
"It's a big night for me and it's a big night for this sport in South Africa," he said. "It's really come on and grown so much and me [winning the title] can only help to show other kids like I was once that this is really possible, getting to the UFC and winning at the top of the sport."