Reported prose from our newsroom. Knockout puncher
Dricus Du Plessis headlines in Oklahoma City with a 9-1 UFC record across 10 appearances. The South African is coming off the first loss of his UFC tenure, a unanimous decision against Khamzat Chimaev in August 2025. Before that, Du Plessis put together the run that defined his career: a unanimous decision over Sean Strickland in February 2025, a submission of Israel Adesanya in August 2024 and a split-decision win over Strickland in January 2024. Known for an unorthodox, high-output style that drags opponents into deep water, Du Plessis wins with pace and durability rather than polish. The Chimaev loss was his first setback in the promotion, and he returns to headline against a former welterweight champion moving up in weight. He faces Kamaru Usman in a middleweight main event in Oklahoma City.
The facts, plainly — vitals and record from public UFC statistics; nickname, nationality, hometown and camp from the public fighter register. A field we can't source stays “pending”; it never shows a fake value.
| Nickname | Stillknocks |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Hometown | Pretoria, Gauteng |
| Fighting out of | Team CIT |
| Height | 6' 1" |
| Reach | 76.0" |
| Stance | Switch |
| Age | 32 |
| Date of birth | Jan 14, 1994 |
| Weight | 185 lbs. |
| Pro record | 24-3 |
| Finish split | 10 UFC wins — 4 KO/TKO, 2 submission, 4 decision |
Career averages over Dricus Du Plessis’s UFC bouts, straight from public UFC statistics — the same eight numbers on his official record. These are the source’s figures, not our read: what we make of them is the card below.
Six 0–100 scores, each a percentile rank against the Middleweight field — not against the whole roster. Tap any i for what a score measures.
Every fight of Dricus Du Plessis’s that we called in the live 2026 season — whichever corner we called it for. Posted before the fight, graded after it.
FightIQ has called 1 of Dricus Du Plessis’s fights in 2026: 1 correct (1–0 — 100% right). Each call was posted before the fight and graded after it. The confidence % is the number we stood behind at the time — losses shown, toss-ups included.
| Date | Opponent | We called it for | Confidence | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-18 | Kamaru Usman | Dricus Du Plessis | 54.3% | Correct |
Across our full back-tested history we called 6 of Dricus Du Plessis’s fights, 6 correct. Back-tested, not part of the public timestamped record: these were computed after the fact, so they show the model working on old cards — they were never published ahead of those fights.
Where the strikes go — and where they land on him. Career UFC totals, straight off the tape.
Significant strikes only, as recorded by UFCStats, across the fighter's whole UFC career. Shares are raw counts — nothing here is modelled or smoothed. Accuracy is landed ÷ attempted and comes from the per-round tape, which covers slightly fewer fights than the totals do. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.
The level change — how often it lands, how often it is stopped. Career UFC rates, straight off the tape.
Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.
Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.
Pro record: 24-3. In the UFC: 10-1. Dricus Du Plessis’s last 8 UFC bouts, most recent first — the result in the cage, not our pick.
Straight off the official UFC fight record. Card names are left off on purpose: the only event labels in our data are derived, and we’d rather print nothing than print one that’s wrong.
| Date | Opponent | Method | Rd | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-18 | W | Kamaru Usman | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC Fight Night: Du Plessis vs. Usman |
| 2025-08-16 | L | Khamzat Chimaev | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC 319: Du Plessis vs. Chimaev |
| 2025-02-08 | W | Sean Strickland | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC 312: Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2 |
| 2024-08-17 | W | Israel Adesanya | Submission | R4 | UFC 305: Du Plessis vs. Adesanya |
| 2024-01-20 | W | Sean Strickland | Decision (split) | R5 | UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis |
| 2023-07-08 | W | Robert Whittaker | KO/TKO | R2 | UFC 290: Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez |
| 2023-03-04 | W | Derek Brunson | KO/TKO | R2 | UFC 285: Jones vs. Gane |
| 2022-12-10 | W | Darren Till | Submission | R3 | UFC 282: Blachowicz vs. Ankalaev |
| 2022-07-02 | W | Brad Tavares | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 276: Adesanya vs. Cannonier |
| 2021-07-10 | W | Trevin Giles | KO/TKO | R2 | UFC 264: Poirier vs. McGregor 3 |
| 2020-10-10 | W | Markus Perez | KO/TKO | R1 | UFC Fight Night: Moraes vs. Sandhagen |
Every date links to that bout’s own page. Card names come from the official event record; where the UFC ran two cards on one date, or that record has no row for it, the Event column is left empty rather than filled with a guess.
