Daniel Cormier admits he had his doubts when it came to Dricus Du Plessis.
For quite some time, the former UFC two-division champion didn’t know what to think of Du Plessis’ rather awkward fighting style in the Octagon. That’d all change for DC after seeing how the South African performed against Sean Strickland at UFC 297. After five rounds of closely-contested action, Du Plessis would successfully capture the middleweight title by split decision.
Cormier’s Learning Curve
While ‘Stillknocks’ unorthodox style isn’t the easiest to understand, it did end up working against Strickland, leaving Cormier to put some much-deserved respect on the name of Dricus Du Plessis.
“The amount of fight parties they had in South Africa to watch this guy is crazy,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “The entire country exploded when he became champion. I’ll tell you this, I never thought that we’d be here today where Dricus is the middleweight champion of the world. I didn’t know, but as he told me earlier in the weekend, as I now understand, he does things his own way.
“I am learning, even though I’ve been in this game for a long time, that all mixed martial arts doesn’t look the same. Sometimes it looks different, and Dricus Du Plessis looks different. But, as I now have gained an appreciation for his style, I know what it looks like to me now. It looks like a champion of the world, because that’s exactly what Dricus is.”
‘Hat’s Off To Him’
The UFC commentator isn’t done giving Du Plessis his flowers for his ‘phenomenal performance’.
“This dude ain’t scared of nothing,” Cormier said of Du Plessis. “When Alex Pereira walked into Octagon, he goes, okay. He said, Israel Asya, you want it? Okay, come get it. I’m pretty sure if I would’ve brought up Khamzat Chimaev, he would’ve said, ‘okay, come get it’ or anyone else, because he is confident in himself and his abilities. And why wouldn’t he be?”
“He’s undefeated in the UFC and he’s a UFC champion now. What a phenomenal performance by Dricus and hat’s off to him.”
Du Plessis’ Fighting Future
As for who Dricus Du Plessis will fight next, that remains a question. However, there is a possibility that two-time champion Israel Adesanya will square off with the new champion later this year or maybe even Khamzat Chimaev as Cormier suggests.
“I’m very interested to see what happens next, though. I wanna see if they try to turn him around for UFC 300 to maybe fight a Chimaev or maybe fight Adesanya.
“After that uncomfortable interaction inside the Octagon with Adesanya, I’m all in on that one,” Cormier said of Du Plessis vs. Adesanya. “I know there are gonna be a lot of people that go, ‘why would Izzy deserve a championship opportunity?’ Well, sometimes it’s about the story and Izzy and Dricus have a story that’s already written.”
Don’t Forget About ‘Tarzan’
Daniel Cormier is also keeping a close eye on now former champ Sean Strickland.
“I’m also interested to see what happens to Sean Strickland now as he tries to rebuild himself into a championship contender or a UFC champion once again.”
