All it takes is a tiny misstep, a miscalculation and everything will spiral out of control in the fight business. Taking the case of the great, Alexander Volkanovski, UFC middleweight king, Dricus du Plessis recently explained the significance of prep time, reasoning why he refused to fight at UFC 300.
In an exclusive to FightWave, the Proteas shrugged off the criticism and spoke his mind, saying,
“This is your career, you have to be smart about it. Look at Alex Volkanovski… as a champion stepping in on a week’s notice. That is so badass, but what happened? What favors did that do him? Yeah he got money, that’s not why I do this. He got money but he got knocked out because obviously, he didn’t have time to prepare for that fight… Do you think that anybody went ‘oh but he took it on short notice’? No, everybody went ‘he got knocked out’.”
Dricus du Plessis explains why he turned down a fight at #UFC300:
"This is your career, you have to be smart about it. Look at Alex Volkanovski… as a champion stepping in on a weeks notice.
That is so badass, but what happened? What favors did that do him? Yea he got money,… pic.twitter.com/sPQSePdgY0
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 11, 2024
While taking fights on short notice seems awesome, in reality, it just changes the whole equation, putting the fighter at risk. Adding to his take, Dricus du Plessis also highlighted how the fandom was awed to see Volkanovski take the fight on a week’s notice but once he was KOed, that factor became trivial.
Taking notes from such incidents, the South African turned down UFC’s offer to fight at UFC 300 against Israel Adeanya for his first title defense. However, now that he has rested and retired, du Plessis says he is ready to go and wants the UFC to announce his next fight!
Dricus du Plessis ready to go, wants UFC to announce his next fight
The UFC Middleweight championship changed hands quite frequently from Alex Pereira back to Izzy then to Sean Strickland and finally with Dricus du Plessis. The South African won the title from the ever-exciting Sean Strickland in a rather controversial decision. However, he’s been playing his cards smartly since then, waiting for the right time to pick his fights and not jump into the fray prematurely.
During the same conversation with FightWave, the champ revealed that he is ready to take on the challenge and defend his belt for the first time. Though du Plessis wants to face former middleweight king, Israel Adesanya, in the cage, he is also battle-ready to take on any man that is put in front of him.
