There are times when UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis looks like an oversized toddler running downhill while throwing punches at whoever is backpedaling to get the hell out of his way. That’s when he’s most dangerous. We saw it again at UFC 305 on Saturday night at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, as Du Plessis defended his 185-pound title against his greatest rival, Israel Adesanya.
Du Plessis would lunge forward at Izzy throughout the fight, landing long, straight, jousting-style punches, as he did with Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson. That can be hard to defend, as every middleweight who’s stood in against the South African has rudely found out. As far as UFC main events go, it was a good one.
Adesanya began to dial in and piece Du Plessis up from the third round on, yet after getting caught with a couple of wild punches along the fence, he was in full retreat. Moments later, he was tapping out to Du Plessis, who tried to crank Adesanya’s head off his shoulders. That’s how fast it happens against Du Plessis.
And just like that, the fight went from “and new” to “and still ...
,” as in, Du Plessis is still the middleweight champ. With the victory, he cracks into the top 10 of this month’s pound-for-pound rankings. The panel of Chuck Mindenhall, Petesy Carroll, and fearless Ringer MMA Show producer Troy Farkas have ranked both the men’s and women’s P4P best, one through 10.
Our only criterion for these monthly rankings is that a fighter .