{"id":810024,"date":"2026-07-19T10:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:53:09","slug":"du-plessis-makes-winning-return-to-ufc-with-dominant-decision-over-usman-mixed-martial-arts-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810024\/","title":{"rendered":"Du Plessis makes winning return to UFC with dominant decision over Usman | Mixed Martial Arts News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">South African fighter held the middleweight belt \u2060from January 2024 until August 2025 when he lost to Chimaev.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 19 Jul 202619 Jul 2026<\/p>\n<p>Dricus Du Plessis \u200chas leaned on his South African roots in his first fight in nearly a year \u2060to secure \u2060a victory by unanimous decision over Nigeria\u2019s Kamaru Usman in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<p>The judges on Saturday \u2060scored the bout 50-45, 49-46, 49-46 in favour of Du Plessis (24-3 MMA), who won his first nine UFC bouts and held the middleweight belt \u2060from January 2024 until mid-August last year.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>Du Plessis hadn\u2019t fought since that winning streak was snapped by Khamzat Chimaev, who remains champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to get up,\u201d the 32-year-old said. \u201cThere\u2019s so many South African kids that look \u200cup to me. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s bigger than me. I can\u2019t go lie down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4785442\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-19T035457Z_2131201310_MT1USATODAY29409678_RTRMADP_3_MMA-UFC-FIGHT-NIGHT-OKLAHOMA-CITY-DU-PLE.jpeg\" alt=\"Jul 18, 2026; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Dricus Du Plessis (red gloves) fights Kamaru Usman (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/>Dricus Du Plessis, right, fights Kamaru Usman in his first fight in 11 months after losing his middleweight belt [Alonzo Adams\/Imagn Images via Reuters]<\/p>\n<p>In a fight contested upright with no successful takedowns or submission attempts, Du Plessis didn\u2019t appear rusty whatsoever, finishing with a convincing 139-99 edge in total strikes and landing 136 significant strikes to Usman\u2019s 92.<\/p>\n<p>Usman (21-5) was the UFC welterweight champion from March 2019 to November 2021. \u2060However, the Nigerian, 39, has lost four of \u2060his last five fights and couldn\u2019t add a second straight win in his first fight in 13 months this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>In the middleweight co-main event, England\u2019s Christian Leroy Duncan (15-2) defeated Jared Cannonier (18-10 MMA) \u2060via unanimous decision. The scorecards read 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 for Duncan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African fighter held the middleweight belt \u2060from January 2024 until August 2025 when he lost to Chimaev.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[6074,64,63,786,10280,785,44,1183,588,85],"class_list":["post-810024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-africa","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-south-africa","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}