Dricus du Plessis aims to be the UFC's African champion

The Pretoria native is fast making a name for himself in the promotion, with three finishes in his last four fights, two performance bonuses and the scalp of the talented Darren Till to boot. 

Last time out, at UFC 282 in December, du Plessis dominated the Englishman, with a takedown eventually leading to a submission, a Fight of the Night bonus and a place in the top ten of the middleweight rankings. Make no mistake, the hype train is full steam ahead.

On Saturday in Las Vegas, du Plessis steps into the cage with No.5 ranked Derek Brunson on a stacked UFC 285 card featuring the return of the indomitable Jon Jones, who takes on Cyril Gane for the heavyweight strap in the main event. 

Also on the card with du Plessis is fellow South African and teammate Cameron Saaiman, who faces Mana Martinez in the prelims. The duo fight out of Team CIT in Pretoria and have become close.

"He's and incredible guy and we are amazing friends," du Plessis told the media in the pre-fight press conference in Las Vegas this week. 

"We train together every day, we've been doing that for many years. His journey is awesome. It's a testimony to what we do with our team back home. It shows that the system [we have is working], look at Cameron, he is an incredible athlete and he's coming from the same coaching, same gym, same system. Team CIT, we are doing things right. It's different, but it's working."

This time last year, the UFC had three African-born champions in Francis Ngannou, Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya. No one could have predicted that all three, who had been such dominant champions in their respective weight classes, would be beltless come 2023.

But du Plessis is ready to fill that void and further motivate for the promotion to host a major PPV event on the continent, something UFC overlord Dana White has alluded to in many a press conference.

"I'm going to take a belt to Africa… I'm the African fighter in the UFC," quipped the middleweight.

"Myself and Cameron, we breathe the African air. We wake up in Africa every day. We train in Africa. We are African born, we African raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa. 

"That's an African champion and that's who I'll be."

Looking toward Saturday night in Sin City, du Plessis says he and Saaiman have a great opportunity to continue to expand South Africa's footprint on the MMA map.

"Its massive for African MMA, the UFC wants to [host an event in] Africa this year," continued the 29-year-old.

"It's massive for the both of us. We are representing a flag… we representing a whole country. Even though [fight time] is 1am for him and 4am for me, we are going to have the whole country on their feet."