Earlier this afternoon, we learned that the UFC has finalized a big time middleweight matchup between top ten contenders for March. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report that Derek Brunson (23-8) will be taking on the surging Dricus Du Plessis (18-2).
The matchup goes down at UFC 285 on March 5th. For Du Plessis, he’s looking to continue his climb up the ranks with his biggest win yet. We just saw him earlier this month when he took on former welterweight title challenger Darren Till at UFC 282.
Du Plessis came out strong and nearly got a first round finish. He significantly cooled off in the second round and allowed Till to get momentum back. However, he ultimately secured a finish in the third round. That finish moved him to 4-0 inside the octagon.
UFC Return for Brunson
Back in February at UFC 271, Derek Brunson took on Jared Cannonier in a middleweight title eliminator. Brunson rocked Cannonier in the first round and had the round been about 20 seconds longer, he likely would have won the fight by submission.
However, Cannonier survived to the bell and stormed back to finish Brunson in the second round. That loss to Cannonier snapped a five-fight winning streak for Brunson. Initially, Brunson said he was leaning towards just fighting one more time before retiring from the UFC.
However, he’s recently stated that he wants to fight four times next year and it starts with Du Plessis. If he can pick up the bounce back win and stop Du Plessis’ momentum, it will get him back on track towards a potential middleweight title shot.