Dricus du Plessis Is Rumored To Fight Kamaru Usman on July 18th At UFC Oklahoma

Former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis (23-3 MMA) and former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (21-4 MMA) are reportedly set to headline UFC's return to Oklahoma City on July 18 at the Paycom Center. The fight has not been officially announced by the UFC yet, but sportsbooks have already opened betting lines with du Plessis listed as a -230 favorite and Usman at +195. It would be the promotion's first trip to Oklahoma in over nine years.

Two Former ChampionBoth of the guys have the same problem right now and that's Khamzat Chimaev. Du Plessis had his middleweight title taken by Chimaev at UFC 319 last summer in what was easily one of the most one sided fights in championship history. All three judges had it 50-44. Chimaev tallied 21:19 in control, landed 12 takedowns, and basically spent five rounds proving that the skill gap between them was not even close. Usman’s defeat to Chimaev happened at UFC 294 in October 2023 on short notice. Different fight, different scenario but same result. Chimaev won by decision and Usman could never get anything going offensively. 

Now the both of them are trying to rebuild themselves back up. And the winner here could be a fight away from a bout with the new champion Sean Strickland, who claimed the middleweight belt from Chimaev at UFC 328 earlier this month via split decision.

Du Plessis Has Not Fought Since Losing His BeltDu Plessis has been on the sidelines since losing his belt to Chimaev. It's been almost a year since he's fought. But before all that happened he was actually on a crazy run. Riding a 10 fight win streak with finishes over Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya and decision wins over Strickland. Some say he was dominating the division.
But the Chimaev fight exposed a weakness. Du Plessis is dangerous on the feet with his wild, unorthodox striking, but once a high level wrestler like Chimaev gets him to the floor its over. He doesn't quite have the scrambling ability yet to get back to his feet. That's the big question going into the Usman fight because Usman's wrestling is elite even at 40 years old. 

Recently Du Plessis called out Chimaev for his comments regarding his weight cut for UFC 328.

“Take your loss like a man,” du Plessis said. He called Chimaev’s excuse about his weight cut “ridiculous” and made it clear he has no sympathy for his former opponent.

Usman Looking For A Path Back To Gold

When you look at the welterweight rankings, Usman's already been there and done that with nearly everyone there. Luque, Burns, Masvidal all of them have lost to Usman. I mean at one point Usman was one of the most dominant welterweight champions the UFC had ever seen. So it makes sense that Usman wanted Islam Makhachev too. A dominant win over him would put him in line for one last title shot. He made that clear on his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo. But right now the UFC has other plans and they offered him du Plessis instead. 

What This Means for the Middleweight Division

The middleweight division looks pretty wild at the moment. Strickland is the champion. Chimaev is in limbo, deciding whether he wants to compete in middleweight, welterweight, or RAF wrestling. And now there are two former champions set to face off with the implications being that it’s essentially a title to determine who gets to re enter the title picture. If du Plessis emerges victorious, he’s immediately back in the mix with another former champ on his resume. If Usman gets it done at 185, all of a sudden, he’s a major player in the title shot talks, and he’s having one of the craziest late career runs in the UFC. Either way, someone's comeback story ends their in Oklahoma. 

“One thing about me is when they call me and say this guy or that guy, I say yes,” Usman said. “It has to be meaningful. If it gets me to the title, that’s what I want.”