Dricus Du Plessis talks UFC 264 victory & $75,000 Fight of the Night Bonus
Dricus Du Plessis knows how to perform when the lights are shinning on him.
Prior to joining the UFC, Du Plessis climbed the top of ladder in the EFC Worldwide and KSW promotions as he captured titles in both of them.
After getting the call to fight in the sports biggest organization, the South African fighter is 2-0 in the middleweight division with two big performances. In his first UFC outing, he won his promotional debut when he defeated Markus Perez last October by a first-round knockout.
His second big stage may have been the biggest of his life so far as it came at UFC 264, which was headlined by the trilogy fight between Dustin Poirier and sports icon Conor McGregor.
Du Plessis fought on the preliminary card and defeated Trevin Giles by a second-round knockout. In the fight, Du Plessis and Giles had a very close opening round. After a back-and-forth opening five minutes, the two came out swinging in the second round. Giles landed his best strike of the fight, but he left his hands down and Du Plessis capitalized on the moment and landed a big right cross that dropped Giles to the canvas. From there, Du Plessis swarmed Giles and landed heavy ground and pound before the fight was waved off.
The finish stood out to the most important man in the building. At the UFC 264 post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White announced that Du Plessis was awarded a Fight of the Night Bonus, which for the Poirier-McGregor trilogy was 75,000 dollars.
Following his big performance, Du Plessis broke down his victory and discussed what it was like to get the Fight of the Night Bonus. Aside from his performance, he also talked about the pride he has in representing South Africa and his goal to eventually capture the UFC middleweight championship.
You can watch his full interview in the video above.
