
Dricus Du Plessis believes he can surpass Alex Pereira’s victory over Sean Strickland. In his recent interview, “Stillknocks” shared how he plans to approach the fight, ensuring a better performance than “Poatan” in snatching the middleweight title.
Pereira defeated Strickland via a vicious first-round knockout at UFC 276 in July 2022. Nonetheless, Du Plessis is confident that he can do a better job than what the former middleweight champ showed in the said bout.
In his recent interview with Submission Radio, the No. 2-ranked middleweight fighter applauded his next opponent’s unconventional yet effective defense. According to the South African, this worked for Israel Adesanya in September, but he underscored that it wouldn’t be the case for him.
“Sean Strickland did what Sean Strickland does against Israel and it works for him,” Du Plessis said. “And that’s great. Styles do make fights, so it works for him. But I have my style of fighting. He has his style of fighting. And in our fight, it’s going to be the guy who imposes his will and fights his fight the best. That’s going to be the winner, and that’s going to be me.”
In line with that, Du Plessis explained why “The Last Stylebender” lost to Strickland. According to the fighter, while it is certain that Strickland can deliver in quantity, he can win by landing at least one shot every time there is a chance. As Stillknocks noted, his stronger shots will ensure his success in bringing a better victory than Pereira’s KO win against Strickland.
“I don’t think he has that crazy knockout power, but he does have quantities,” explained Du Plessis. “I promise you, you are going to lose that fight if you’re going to fight his pace – and Israel Adesanya fought his pace – because he walks forward, he makes people tentative sometimes, because he’s slipping punches all the time.
“I don’t think to fight his pace is a smart move. I know I’m more athletic, I’m stronger physically, and (I’ll be) using that to my advantage – making sure I hit harder, but making sure that every shot I throw lands, making sure I land those punches and I’m not just standing there in the pocket throwing with him, because that’s his fight style. That’s his style. (I need to be) making sure that I’m fighting a smart fight and that whatever I throw – I need one shot. I need to land one shot. If Pereira can knock him out, I can knock him out even better.”