Dricus Du Plessis impresses in stoppage victory over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, July 8, 2023, for International Fight Week, where UFC 290 goes down live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a featherweight title unification bout between undisputed champion Alexander Volkanovski (25-2) and interim champion Yair Rodriguez (15-3).
Co-headlining the event was also a title bout, this one a trilogy coming at 125 lbs between UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno (21-6-2) and no. 2 ranked former RFA flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja (25-5).
Our feature fight of the evening came at 185 lbs between former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (24-7) and former KSW welterweight champion Dricus Du Plessis (20-2).
Whittaker came into the bout having gone 4-2 over his latest six appearances, though he was 12-2 since moving up to 185 lbs with the only defeats coming in title fights against UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Du Plessis on the other hand had gone 5-0 with four finishes thus far into his UFC tenure, and he also boasted a win over the most recent man to have defeated him; he had gone 7-0 since returning to 185 lbs in 2019 himself.
Continue reading to see how this epic middleweight feature fight went down:
Official Result: Dricus Du Plessis def. Robert Whittaker via TKO (punches) at 2:23 of round two
Whittaker lands a few range finding shots early on in the bout, and secures an easy takedown midway through the opening round. Du Plessis attacks with a guillotine choke before making his way back up, where he then takes Whittaker down.
Du Plessis searches for the D’Arce choke, but is unable to secure it and instead ends the round reigning down some heavy elbows onto the former champion, busting him open in the process.
Du Plessis catches Whittaker with a hard right hand midway through the second and stuns him badly. He’s able to chase Whittaker down and land enough follow up shots to drop him again, eventually leading to the finish of the fight.
DU PLESSIS FINISHES ROBERT WHITTAKER
— 🌴ᴛʜᴇᴀʀᴛᴏꜰᴡᴀʀ🌴 (@TheArtOfWar6) July 9, 2023
This was an incredibly impressive performance by Dricus Du Plessis; Robert Whittaker has been the clear no. 2 at 185 lbs for the last four years, even arguably with Alex Pereira’s presence in the division, and the South African contender just made that look easy.
Dricus Du Plessis improves to 6-0 in the UFC tonight at UFC 290; he’s now 20-2 as a professional with 19 finishes.
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