Drama! Dricus du Plessis strikes back at rivals and sets his sights on a title shot after punishing Kamaru Usman at UFC.

Du Plessis celebrates his UFC victory. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook/UFC

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Dricus du Plessis is back in the victory column and in the best possible way. In the main event of UFC Oklahoma City, held last Saturday (18), the South African dominated and punished Kamaru Usman, winning by unanimous decision . Because of the show in the octagon, the former middleweight champion (up to 83,9 kg) has already started the campaign to fight for the title again, whose owner is Sean Strickland . It is true that the athlete's attitude did not please the other top fighters in the category, who complained. Without thinking twice, 'DDP' got his revenge on his rivals.

On their respective official 'X' accounts, Brendan Allen and Nassourdine Imavov downplayed Du Plessis's victory and his quality as a fighter. It's worth noting that the American is ranked fifth in the division, while the Frenchman is number three.

“Relax 🥱”, wrote Imavov.

"DDP is crap, end of story," Allen wrote.

Upon learning of his rivals' comments, Du Plessis downplayed them in the post- UFC Oklahoma City press conference. In his view, the South African had done more than enough to challenge the middleweight champion, as he impressed against one of the best fighters in the history of the sport.

Furthermore, the athlete, in addition to being a former champion, is ranked second and has two victories over Strickland. Therefore, Du Plessis sought to provoke Allen and Imavov, who, unlike him, were defeated by the champion.

“Absolutely. Because I beat him twice and I don’t even know if Imavov is still fighting. Is he? It’s been a while. Allen just fights guys who are ranked 20th, right? So, I’m glad he has Twitter. Good for him. At this level, it’s the little details that define whether you’ll be a champion or just a contender. And I don’t like being just a contender,” said the former champion.

“Honestly, I felt like I totally entered that flow state. I executed everything we trained for. The feeling was great. I dominated every round. I’m very happy to have been able to show my takedown defense and that I can’t stay on the ground. The strategy worked perfectly. I think it couldn’t have been better. I said that DDP 2.0 has arrived. Basically, I knocked out four or five times in this fight,” he concluded.

Du Plessis' fighters in MMA.

Dricus du Plessis , 32, is one of the best middleweight fighters in MMA history. The South African began his career in the sport in 2013, debuted in the UFC in 2020, and became the champion of the category in 2024, making two title defenses.

In this discipline, the athlete built a record of 24 wins, 20 by stoppage (11 by submission and nine by knockout), and three losses. His main victories were over Darren Till , Derek Brunson , Israel Adesanya , Kamaru Usman , Robert Whittaker , and Sean Strickland (twice).

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