feature-image

Imago

feature-image

Imago

Dricus Du Plessis is Sean Strickland‘s latest nemesis. The fighter will lock horns with ‘Tarzan’ at UFC 297 as the two headline the year’s first major pay-per-view. Du Plessis currently stands at 20-2 in his professional career and hasn’t lost a single match since his debut in 2020.

Watch What’s Trending Now!

In the last four years, ‘Stillknocks’ has really made a name for himself. How does he do it? The striker hails from South Africa and can knock out even some of the most agile fighters in the middleweight division. Will Strickland be the next on his list? How does Du Plessis land those powerful strikes? Here’s more about his height and reach.

ADVERTISEMENT

Can Dricus Du Plessis tower over Strickland?

Dricus Du Plessis is a mountain of a man. At 185 pounds in the middleweight division, Du Plessis is 6 feet and almost 1 inch tall in height. This gives him a brilliant advantage especially given his style of fighting. Du Plessis comes from a rather strong kickboxing background, hence having a taller height gives him the space to strike down his opponents.

His reach is reportedly about 76 inches. On the official UFC website, Du Plessis’ striking accuracy is recorded as 56% and takedown accuracy at 50%. It only helps his case that he’s won most of his UFC fights via a knockout. In fact, in his very first fight against Markus Perez, ‘Stillknocks’ won by knocking his opponent out in the very first round.

ADVERTISEMENT

If that’s not an explosive debut, we don’t know what is. Since then, the fighter has dominated every fight. He’s taken down the likes of Darren Till and Robert Whittaker to bring himself to the #2 position in the middleweight division. As of right now, Israel Adesanya, the former champ, is still #1.

ADVERTISEMENT

article-image

Now that the title match is set up, will ‘Izzy‘ eventually make a comeback too? There’s no way to tell. Right now, Du Plessis has only one target and that’s ‘Tarzan’. Strickland and he have been going back and forth with their banter and even got into a little brawl at UFC 296. Does the mental warfare do anything for them?

ADVERTISEMENT

Du Plessis and Strickland try to tear each other down

Everyone witnessed the brawl that erupted between the two at UFC 296. Strickland launched himself at Du Plessis and started pummeling him with fists until a bunch of spectators and security personnel quickly came to break them up. This happened in the aftermath of ‘Stillknocks’ bringing up Strickland’s troubled past.

ADVERTISEMENT

Watch This Story: Conor McGregor’s Insane 2022: Insane Bulk Up, ‘NSFW’ Yacht Video, Joe Rogan Beef and More

ADVERTISEMENT

“Bro, why are you so angry?” Du Plessis asked Strickland at the press conference ahead of the pay-per-view. “Bro you think your Dad beat the sh*t out of you? Your dad doesn’t have sh*t on me . . . every childhood memory you have is gonna come back when I’m in there with you.” Clearly, trash talk that got a little too personal. Strickland was soon heard breaking down over his childhood on an episode of the podcast, This Past Week with Theo Von. Will the emotional struggle affect the fighter? What’s your take? Let us know in the comments.

Also Read: Sean Strickland Suffers Injury Before UFC 297 Clash Against Dricus Du Plessis for ‘Extreme Activity’

ADVERTISEMENT

Share this with a friend:

Link Copied!

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Written by

author-image

Prit Chauhan

928 Articles

Prit Chauhan is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. His portfolio shows him as the go-to event coverage writer at ES and his work on UFC 297 is proof of the same. As an experienced writer and a longtime MMA fan, Prit’s strong suit lies in telling the relatively unknown and more personal stories of fights and fighters. He is also a huge fan of Muay Thai phenom Rodtang Jitmuangnon, and covers ONE Championship-related news as well. When not on his laptop covering his favorite sport, you’ll find Prit in some cozy cafe with his guitar jamming with his friends. A psychologist by vocational training, you’ll find his take on the behind-the-scenes drama quite intriguing. For more, you can reach out to him at-

Know more

Edited by

editor-image

Smrutisnat Jena

ADVERTISEMENT