Dricus du Plessis' stunning TKO victory earns him UFC title shot

The Pretoria native was given little chance of upsetting Whittaker, whose only losses in the last nine years have been to middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

Whittaker enjoyed some early success with a takedown, but failed to capitalise on the position as the bigger du Plessis got to his feet. Later in the clinch, a smart trip by du Plessis took the fight to the ground with him on top, where he ended the first round.

While Whittaker's educated combinations looked dangerous, it was du Plessis' power that won him the fight. A straight right on the nose stunned the Australian and a patient du Plessis picked him apart to earn a stunning second-round TKO victory.

Being a title eliminator, Adesanya was of course cage-side in the packed arena and was welcomed to the cage for a face-off. The Nigerian-born star was quick to turn divisive, repeating "what's up n*****" in reference to du Plessis' claims that he would be the first African champion to fight out of Africa.

"He's behaving like a clown in there," said the 29-year-old of the incident in his post-fight press conference.

"That's not how a champion behaves, that's not how a man behaves. He’s behaving like a child. Conduct yourself like a champion. There are people looking up to you and you’re behaving like that? Nah…"

Also flying the South African flag high was du Plessis' Team CIT teammate Cameron Saaiman. Fighting on the undercard, the rising bantamweight star improved his record to 9-0 after making short work of Terrence Mitchell. The 22-year-old caught Mitchell in an awkward position and unleashed his ground and pound for a first-round TKO victory.