Dricus du Plessis is a charismatic professional mixed martial artist from South Africa who currently competes in the Middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He was previously the Middleweight and Welterweight Champion in the Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC), as well as a former KSW Welterweight Champion when he competed in the Polish-based promotion Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki. As of March 2023, he was named #6 in the UFC middleweight rankings. Du Plessis has an astonishing professional record of 19 wins and 2 losses, with 18 stoppages!
Training in judo at the tender age of five, before eventually drifting to kickboxing at 14, he became a WAKO World Champion in K-1 style kickboxing, but migrated to mixed martial arts after realizing there was no money to be made in kickboxing. Du Plessis attended the University of Pretoria, where he studied agricultural economics, but dropped out in his final year to pursue a career in mixed martial arts (MMA) full-time. After wowing crowds in the EFC and winning the EFC Middleweight Championship, he soon set his sights on the UFC, and debuted in October 2020 when he defeated Markus Perez. From that point, du Plessis has remained undefeated in the octagon, and is one of the top prospects in the division right now.
He won Performance of the Night during his defeat of Trevin Giles in July 2021, and more recently beat Darren Till by submission in December 2022 to claim the Fight of the Night prize.
A larger-than-life character who is respected by fans and other fighters alike, du Plessis is sure to continue impressing in the UFC. He revels in connecting with the tens of thousands of fans on his Instagram profile.