Before Dricus du Plessis became the Vecht direction of South Africa, he had doubts about his fighting career, which almost gives up to pursue a new career.
Just like many UFC champions, the top of Dricus Du Plessis came to the top of the middleweight division not easy and came in his career with a lot of early adversity.
In anticipation of his UFC 312 title defense against Sean Strickland next Saturday, the South African champion has given his five-man goat list and hopes to continue his own form, making it possible to bring himself into goat conversations in the future.
Read more: The UFC target of Dricus du Plessis includes taking Alex Pereiras Belt and the ranking of Islam Makhakev
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Dricus Du Plessis almost gave up fighting to pursue a career in rugby
'Still Knocks' is the first champion in the UFC history that trains and lives in Africa and that was the subject that caused his enormous feud with Israel Adesanya.
When he came to professional MMA in 2013, the MMA sport would still have been relatively unknown on the continent. The National Sport in South Africa is Rugby Union, something Du Plessis was a big fan of growing up.
However, he was not only a rugby fan and he played with his MMA career in the early days with his MMA career. Prior to his second UFC title defense, the 31-year-old revealed that he almost gave up his MMA career when he came to an intersection.
“I played rugby, I wanted to pursue rugby as a career, I played competitive rugby with both my brothers since I was 5 years old,” Du Plessis began to explain to Triple M.
“I played among the years 19s, provincial teams played, and yes, then I had to make that decision, am I going to play rugby or fight?
“And there, as I said, especially fighting locally in South Africa, what kind of money are you going to do? Because I received a stock exchange to play rugby and study at the University of Pretoria, I had to say no.
“I went to study, but I had to go:” Daddy, I want to fight, so I'm not going to play rugby, “he asked what I was going to do for money and I said,” fight, “Du Plessis admitted.
Fortunately for the MMA world, 'Still Knocks' made the decision to drop his promising rugby career and to pursue MMA. His decision was justified in 2020 when he received his UFC debut and then won the title last year.
Dricus du Plessis who sees a potentially future fight against Alex Pereira
Strickland announced not long ago that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Alex Pereira, is part of his corner team for UFC 312.
When Du Plessis listed his current goat list, he ignored 'Patan', despite the labeling of him as 'one of the best combat sports athletes to ever live'.
The middleweight champion has admitted that his reason to omit the Brazilian is because he sees him as a future rival and believes that one day they can meet in the cage.
In this MMA era, many hunters believe that their estate is declining whether they can become double champions and Du Plessis has previously plagued to want to complete that performance before his career is ready.
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