By Dylan Bettencourt
- South African UFC champion Dricus du Plessis says being willing to die or kill in the cage makes him a true champion.
- Du Plessis faces Sean Strickland in Sydney on Sunday morning in his second title defence.
South African UFC champion Dricus du Plessis says he’s willing to either die or kill in the cage – and that’s what makes him different from his next opponent, Sean Strickland.
Du Plessis will defend his middleweight title against Strickland in Sydney, Australia early on Sunday morning.
In a raw and brutal interview on the Straight Talk podcast, Du Plessis revealed the mindset that makes him a champion.
“That is the question that me, as a modern-day gladiator has to ask myself: Am I still willing to die? Absolutely. That’s easy. It is, are you willing to kill a man in front of his family? Yes, I am, and that’s why I’m the world champion because I say yes to that question every single time,” Du Plessis said.
He said his opponent Strickland doesn’t have the same killer instinct, preferring to play it safe in fights.
“He said to the death before our last fight, but the man just jabbed for five rounds. If you look at the stats, for 23 minutes I went forward and for two minutes he went forward. That is a clear indication of who was there to attack and who was there to defend,” he said.
Du Plessis beat Strickland in January last year to become South Africa’s first UFC champion. He then successfully defended his title against Israel Adesanya in Perth last August.
The champion stresses that his aggressive fighting style is just for the cage.
“The man in society and the man in the arena are two different people,” he said.
Pictured above: UFC champion Dricus du Plessis.
Source: @ufc
