A few weeks ago, Vasti Spiller, made an Instagram post celebrating the latest success of her boyfriend, Dricus du Plessis. The UFC Middleweight champion capped off a stellar 2024 by winning the International Fighter of the Year title at the 16th annual World MMA Awards in Las Vegas. He already has his eyes set on his next fight after a rematch with Sean Strickland was confirmed for UFC 302 on February 9. But ahead of the marquee bout, Du Plessis took to his social media to reflect on his journey this year and show gratitude.

Last year, ‘Stillknocks’ fought for the middleweight title twice. Taking on Sean Strickland to win it at UFC 297 via split decision and one-on-one against Israel Adesanya to defend it via submission at UFC 305. With these wins, he surpassed Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley as the sixth-best pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC rankings.

All ‘thanks to the help and blessings of the lord almighty Jesus Christ,’ as the UFC fighter revealed in his Instagram post. Sharing several pictures of his highlight moments of the year, Dricus du Plessis wrote in the caption, “Thank you Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the most amazing 2024! 2025 will also be our year! Thank you everyone for the love and support I couldn’t do any of this without you. 🇿🇦✝️👑”

In the post, du Plessis had several photos of him with his friends and family as well as moments from his octagon run this year. There was an image of Israel Adesanya lurking before their fight as well as du Plessis wildly celebrating after his win against Strickland. There was also the iconic image from UFC 297, with Strickland bleeding from his face, holding his fist up and du Plessis doing the same.

There was also a heartwarming image of du Plessis hugging his father in the cage after his title win as he celebrated becoming the first African to win the middleweight title. du Plessis also shared a few pictures of him spending some moments with his girlfriend. Spiller, also shared a review of her moments in 2024 on Instagram, featuring her boyfriend including an incredible clip.

Spiller’s IG post was a video capturing her time last year with du Plessis. In the snippets, we see a clip of du Plessis playfully suplexing Spiller, who is a kickboxing instructor, in the pool. She captioned the post, “Goodbye 2024, thank you Jesus for another year of your unfailing love, mistakes and so much growth. 2025, well I hope your ready.”

While du Plessis looks back on a successful year, Strickland lies in wait.

The result of the split decision was highly questioned by Strickland. Since then, the American fighter has been on a campaign for a chance to avenge his loss to the South African. However, to qualify for another title fight, the American had to overcome Brazilian Paulo Costa in June and defend his number one ranking position in June of this year. Now they face each other again in Australia.

Meanwhile, fans flocked to the comment section of du Plessis’ Instagram post to show their love to the South African and his girlfriend also chimed in with a comment.

Fans and family share their reactions to Dricus du Plessis’ remarkable 2024

As soon as Dricus du Plessis shared the post on his Instagram, fans were quick to share their reactions about how impressive the South African has been this year. While there were many positive messages, the ones that stood out were about an incident in 2023. So what was the incident?

Well, it was a moment of love and excitement between Du and his coach. After defeating Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, du Plessis kissed his coach, Morne Visser, on the mouth. This drew some sharp reactions from many onlookers back then.

So seeing that du Plessis did not share more photos of the duo kissing on this Instagram post, many fans were quick to call it out. One fan wrote, “You forgot the pic of you making out with your coach 😂😂😂😂 just kidding, champ,” and another quipped, “I see no coach in these pictures!!” However, it was all fun and jokes from their end.

Spiller also showed her boyfriend some love as she wrote in the comments, “Love of my life ♥️” in their native Afrikaans.

Other fans were quick to boost the morale of the middleweight champion. Many claimed that while they were not big fans of the fighter, du Plessis managed to change their opinions about him by delivering exciting fights while still being humble. As a result, one fan shared their hope writing, “PRAISE THE LORD AND KEEP DDP’S PLOT ARMOR!!!!”  and another noted, “You deserve it, DDP! You turned me from a hater to a fan. Stay based.”

But what do you think? Will Dricus du Plessis defeat Sean Strickland yet again? Let us know in the comments.