Aspinall: «I'm confused by Du Plessis' style, but he's incredibly strong»
Interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has praised the strength of current middleweight titleholder Dricus Du Plessis, noting the unconventional style of the South African fighter.
”Du Plessis, you can’t count this guy out. I watch fights as a fan, but I also watch fights as a fighter to try and pick up little nuances, and I love to study different styles and for me personally, Dricus is a guy who I’m baffled by, in all honesty.
I’m completely baffled by his style because you watch him, and to be brutally honest, he looks a little bit inferior to his opponents in terms of technique but it’s amazing to watch because he obviously isn’t inferior.
But he makes up for it in spirit, his will to win and persistence – if he doesn’t get what he’s going for [at first], he will keep going and grind his opponents down until he gets it. He just looked fantastic out there in the fight with Adesanya.
You look at him and think «He’s a bit raw there, he’s a bit messy there, he’s doing this a little bit wrong» but the guy’s timing – this unorthodox herky-jerky timing where he breaks down his opponents and his spirit is just something that I can be inspired by.
I can watch this guy all day and be like «Wow, this guy is just mentally and physically grinding his opponents down». We’ve got to give him credit for his fight IQ as well, he systematically broke Israel Adesanya down and that’s not something that’s done easily,” Aspinall said, as reported by ***** Elbow.
On the night of August 18, Dricus Du Plessis defeated Israel Adesanya via submission at UFC 305, successfully defending his middleweight championship title.
In his MMA career, Du Plessis has won 22 bouts and lost twice. In comparison, Adesanya has a record of 24 victories and four defeats.
