Dricus Du Plessis Fighting Style Analysis: Why He’s So Hard to Beat

UFC middleweight king Dricus Du Plessis has an awkward, prejudiced style of fighting that mimics or takes from no other. While it could be said about many that they are hard to decipher, ‘Stillknocks’ himself has never laid out a blueprint for it. As such, his fighting style has no name or method.

His ‘banana slip’ striking success is no joke, though, as the Afrikaner has made good use of his skills. While not the best of KOs, Du Plessis has gone up against some of the best names and come back winning. Here is a brief insight into his fighting style.

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Dricus Du Plessis has a kickboxing background

Drunken Dancing… Anyone? UFC CEO and bossman Dana White once joked that DDP shoots like a white drunk guy dances at parties. That is to say – Dricus Du Plessis’ fighting style is quite uninhibited – and it works. In his UFC ‘Embedded’ Vlog shoots and demos with Nina-Marie Daniele, the UFC 185-pound king said he likes to go open chin, face-first, wildly ranged striking. Something that has been called the ‘blitzing’.

He prefers to take shots head-on and absorb only to not break momentum and have a greater ‘pushback’ – his banana peel effect. Du Plessis’ fighting is usually characterized by heavy strike-absorptions, his usual unorthodox range, and then opening up for big right-left swings.

As a shelled-up defensive boxing expert (in the art of “Philly”), Sean Strickland found his jaggery pace very difficult. When Du Plessis was crowned champ at UFC 297, Strickland thus voiced much angst about being robbed by Canadian hardcore leftists. During his UFC 312 PPV fighter check-in Q&A, he told Daniel Cormier that the bamboozling style feels like fighting a ‘ret*rd’ off the short bus!

There is nomenclature or a signature moveset here. Truth is, though, DDP and his K1-kickboxing swing-strike method helps out to go wide and far, high and low, right-left in volume. A WAKO Junior World Championships winner (—86kg bracket), he accumulated a 33-0 amateur kickboxing stat early on. So once he has absorbed a shot, the fighter can work any amount of range and catch strays with his wild swinging.

He now fights from a Team CIT (South Africa) tailored switch-stance that favors his right-left swings even more and chase down opponents.

Dricus Du Plessis dabbles in wrestling

A pronounced 2nd-degree black belt in kickboxing, his K1-style speed, his swing-strike, his footwork, because he played rugby and other stuff aside, he’s a martial artist. That meant proper wrestling/anti-wrestling, spatial management, spatial awareness, chaining up moves and TDs, trips, and such were also important.

Per UFC Record Books, Du Plessis touts a 2.55 takedown (TD Avg) with around 50% Takedown Accuracy. The South African fighter has stood his own against fighters who have trained extensively in wrestling. He fought former champ Robert Whittaker, who himself boasts quite the prowess with exceptional spatial management.

Whittaker trained with the Aussie national team for freestyle wrestling (Comm.); he’s also trained in the arts of (defensive) Gōjū-ryū Karate. Dricus Du Plessis and his fighting style are usually characterized by striking. However, he did punctuate a title defense win with a shock submission. DDP submitted Israel Adesanya via a fourth-round rear-naked choke at their UFC 305 PPV title fight. While there were other SOTY contenders the same year, this one was quite a shocker.

Du Plessis has a serviceable grappling style and sometimes uses his headstrong, strike-swing awkward style to force a clinch. He often uses the full extent of his strength to gas out a rival during a hold, or until the round gets over.

Recently, Team CIT Performance Institute coach Morne Visser has boasted that the fighter has further sharpened his wrestling/anti-wrestling/spatial awareness. Visser even doused not many can take down Du Plessis. While his wrestling credentials or extent is yet unknown, this speaks of some proper prep in the steps.