Dricus Du Plessis credits coach Morne Visser for the tip which helped him finish Robert Whittaker to earn a UFC middleweight title shot.
“Stillknocks” scored a second-round stoppage of Whittaker in their title eliminator matchup at UFC 290 in July 2023. The South African revealed that it was his coach’s plan to fight southpaw that earned him the finish.
While Du Plessis admits Whittaker is almost technically flawless, his team noticed “Bobby Knuckles” getting clipped against southpaws even when the Australian emerged victorious. Du Plessis listened to his coach’s advice to go southpaw and was rewarded perfectly.
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“All credit to my coach for that fight,” Du Plessis said on the UFC 305 Countdown show. “There’s very very few holes in the game of Robert Whittaker. Fighting southpaws, he beat all of them but he got caught a few times coming in. And we went through the videos and he just showed me every time he saw it. And my coach came to me and says, ‘OK we’re going to fight southpaw,’ and he was right. The game plan worked out perfectly.”
Dricus Du Plessis’s coach, in the fight with Whittaker, told him to switch to southpaw, which led to the knockout.
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Footage from UFC 290 also revealed then champion Israel Adesanya, who has beaten Whittaker twice, rooting for Du Plessis’ to win while attending the event. While a title fight between Adesanya and Du Plessis was perfectly set then to settle their rivalry, “Stillknocks” was sidelined with a foot injury after UFC 290. That opened the door for Sean Strickland to challenge Adesanya for the title at UFC 293 this past September. Strickland put on a defensive masterclass to earn a dominant unanimous decision win over Adesanya in one of the biggest upsets in UFC title fight history.
Du Plessis, having already paid his dues for a title shot, challenged Strickland at UFC 297 this past January, eking out a razor thin split-decision win. The South African now finally meets Adesanya in his first title defense at UFC 305 on Saturday in Perth, Australia.
