{"id":663263,"date":"2026-05-11T23:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T23:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/663263\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T23:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T23:37:08","slug":"dricus-du-plessis-claims-hes-champ-again-after-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/663263\/","title":{"rendered":"Dricus du Plessis claims he\u2019s champ again after UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/442033\/gym-wars-and-violent-threats-the-khamzat-vs-strickland-beef-explained-ufc-328\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Foul-mouthed<\/a> Sean Strickland reclaimed the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight title this past weekend (Sat., May 9, 2026), defeating Khamzat Chimaev via razor-close split decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-328-live-stream-fight-card-start-time-how-to-watch\/441167\/ufc-328-live-results-highlights-play-by-play-khamzat-vs-strickland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 328\u2019s main event<\/a> inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-328-live-stream-fight-card-start-time-how-to-watch\/442851\/scorecards-pivotal-5th-round-earns-sean-strickland-split-decision-win-over-khamzat-chimaev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">official scorecards here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One man paying very close attention cageside was former champion Dricus du Plessis \u2014 the only fighter to defeat Strickland twice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And after watching Strickland reclaim the belt, \u201cDDP\u201d used some classic MMA math to crown himself champion again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cYeah, so the fight went exactly the way I thought it would,\u201d du Plessis said backstage. \u201cGreat, great fight by Strickland. As I said, it is so hard to keep that man on the ground. He is incredibly tough to hold down. And he even made Khamzat tired \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI knew that in the stand-up, Khamzat would not be able to hang with him,\u201d du Plessis continued. \u201cSo, congratulations. I guess that makes me world champion again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Unfortunately for \u201cStillknocks,\u201d that isn\u2019t how the sport works.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For complete UFC 328 results, coverage and highlights click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/e\/441167\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Foul-mouthed Sean Strickland reclaimed the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight title this past weekend (Sat., May 9, 2026),&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,208767,139445,702,7788,9468,3194],"class_list":["post-663263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-328","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-results","tag-ufc-videos","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}