For Dricus Du Plessis’ teammates, there’s bizarreness in the fighter, who appears to be completely calm despite his huge fight approaching this weekend. And given that the bout is considered a grudge fight between him and champ Sean Strickland, his teammates find his peaceful attitude toward his training surprising.
Du Plessis will challenge Strickland for his belt this Saturday, but even before that fight, the two had already brawled while attending the UFC 296 event cage-side. The melee followed the South African’s personal insult involving Strickland’s traumatic childhood, which the champ took offense at. “Tarzan” even recently revealed that he told the challenger that he would “f***ing stab” him should he mention it again.
With the tension continuously building up, many would expect both sides to be aggressive in their respective training and that there would be an uneasy aura in their camps. Yet, members of Du Plessis’ team said the opposite was happening on their side.
Team CIT teammates Cameron Saaiman and Stephan De La Rey shared these details in a recent podcast, praising how mature the fighter has become while preparing for this big event.
“This time with Dricus it was almost like, all of that was still there but it was just more fun,” said De La Rey. “It was just more positive, more fun. As you say, there was this weird calmness where he’s just like ‘no, I know what’s going to happen, I know what I need to do, I’m getting it done’ and it was just a weird vibe. It’s just such a positive relaxed vibe and I’m not used to Dricus like that always before a fight so it was pretty cool to see that, how much he’s grown in terms of self confidence.”
Saaiman echoed the sentiment.
“It was weird seeing a more — not a mature Dricus because obviously he is mature — it was just like you’re scaring me, why are you this calm?” said Saaiman. “And then you go out there, have a great session and you can just like switch it off again and you know, rest up. It was cool to see.”
For some, nonetheless, this is unsurprising as “Stillknocks” himself appeared to be highly composed even when Strickland pounced on him at UFC 296. During a post-interview, the fighter even advised the champ to remain calm.
“Right now, he needs to get calm in his head. He needs to regain his composure,” Du Plessis said last month. “I know I’m not the champ yet, so I shouldn’t be really giving the champ advice, but that would be my advice. Gather your composure; be calm. You make mistakes when you’re not calm. I’m cool as a cucumber. I’m feeling absolutely great.”
