Dricus Du Plessis stops Derek Brunson in all-out war at UFC 285

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 4, 2023, for UFC 285, going down live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

Headlining the event is the return of perhaps the greatest mixed martial arts fighter to ever walk the earth, former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones (26-1), who makes his first appearance in three years tonight to challenge former interim UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane (11-1) for the vacant heavyweight championship.

Co-headlining the event is also a title fight, this one coming at 125 lbs as UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko (23-3) aims to make the eighth-straight defense of her title opposing no. 6 ranked Alexa Grasso (15-3).

Our preliminary co-main event of the evening came at 185 lbs between no. 5 ranked Derek Brunson (23-9) and no. 10 ranked Dricus Du Plessis (19-2).

Brunson hadn’t fought in 13 months, where he was KO’d by former title challenger Jared Cannonier, a fight he was looking great in early on and a fight he went into on a five-fight win streak. Du Plessis on the other hand, a former EFC champ-champ (170 & 185), and a former KSW welterweight champion, had gone 4-0 thus far into his UFC run with three finishes.

Continue reading to see how this welterweight encounter went down:

Official Result: Dricus Du Plessis def. Derek Brunson via TKO (corner stoppage) at 4:59 of round two

Brunson catches a kick thrown by Du Plessis early and puts him on his back. Brunson is right into Du Plessis’ side control and holds him down for about a minute before the South African makes his way back up.

Brunson keeps ahold of a front headlock though and jumps guard for a guillotine, which is unsuccessful. Du Plessis is now on top of Brunson before the two end up in a scramble with each man going for footlocks.

Then the two make it back to their feet and Brunson stuns Du Plessis with a nasty left cross before Du Plessis desperately shoots on a double leg. The result of this attempt saw Brunson immediately stuff it and jump into mount.

This fight is absolutely insane!

Brunson goes for a neck crank but is unable to get the tap and we go into round two. Both athletes are visibly exhausted at the start of the second, and after a first round like that who can blame them.

Du Plessis is able to slow the pace down a tad in second and begins to piece Brunson apart with some heavy punches. He hurt Brunson a number of times throughout the second and finally drops him with 25 seconds left in the middle stretch.

Some ruthless ground-and-pound later and Brunson’s team is forced to throw in the towel at the very end of the second.

Du Plessis forces Brunson's corner to throw the towel at the end of the round. #UFC285 pic.twitter.com/PKoRBuLpaU

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 5, 2023

Dricus Du Plessis is now 5-0 in the UFC with four finishes, he’s 19-2 as a professional, having defeated one of the two men that have defeated him, and 18 of those wins come via finish. Despite doing, some would say a lot of things incorrectly, he really seems to make it work for him.

As for Derek Brunson, this is his second defeat in a row, and it’s his second straight defeat coming in round two after a dominant opening round.

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