Dricus Du Plessis reacts to Sean Strickland’s championship win at UFC 328

Dricus Du Plessis just re-entered the UFC middleweight championship picture almost by default.

The South African suffered a lopsided decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev in their title clash at UFC 319 last August, so one could excuse him if he was cheering for Sean Strickland on Saturday night. Strickland delivered in a big way, upsetting Chimaev via split decision to reclaim the 185-pound belt in the UFC 328 headliner at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Du Plessis, of course, is 2-0 against Strickland. “Stillknocks” captured 185-pound gold with a split-decision triumph over Strickland at UFC 297 in January 2024, and he successfully defended the strap with a more convincing five-round verdict in their rematch at UFC 312 in February 2025.

Just As He Expected

Du Plessis reacted to Strickland’s win on the UFC’s Instagram account, claiming that he expected his rival to perform the way he did against the Chechen grappler.

“Fight went exactly the way I thought it would,” Du Plessis said. “Great, great fight by Strickland. Like I said, it’s so hard to keep that man on the ground. He is incredibly tough to hold down. He made Khamzat tired, and that’s exactly what happened. I knew, and like I said in the standup [Khamzat] just won’t be able to hang with him.

“Congratulations. I guess this makes me world champion again.”

Du Plessis hasn’t competed since his loss to Chimaev at UFC 319. The former KSW champion was victorious in his first eight Octagon appearances, besting the likes of Darren Till, Derek Brunson, Robert Whittaker, Strickland (twice) and along the way. While there has been no news regarding Du Plessis’ return, he did seem to indicate an announcement was on the horizon when he wrote “See y’all soon” in the caption of an April 28 Instagram post.