Dricus DuPlessis has accused former Ultimate Fighting Championship ****** leholder KamaruUsman of delaying their bout.
While Usman and du Plessis are now confirmed to be squaring off atUFC Oklahoma City on July 18, the latter claims "The NigerianNightmare" wasn't keen on the matchup. Ahead of the two formerchampions' clash, du Plessis has revealed that the UFC had toconvince Usman to sign the contract.
The UFC Oklahoma City main event announcement was left until the11th hour, despite du Plessis claiming weeks earlier that he'd beenoffered a fight and was waiting for his opponent to sign thecontract. With the Fight Night headlining bout now confirmed,"Stillknocks" has opened up about how it came together.
"He didn't want to sign the contract. I know that for a fact," duPlessis said in an interview with Fight Forecast. "I spoke to theUFC and they said, 'We finally convinced him to sign.' If you needconvincing to sign, that's a problem, but I can't blame him. Iwould also not want to fight me right now. It would be the smartmove not to sign the fight, but let's go."
While Usman is a couple of years removed from his dominantwelterweight ****** le run, du Plessis isn't counting out theNigerian-American, especially considering how Usman's teammateJustinGaethje defeated the far younger IliaTopuria at UFC Freedom 250.
"We've been talking about the fight for a long time. He's mentionedthe fight way before we made the fight and I said, 'Well, cool.I'll take that fight.' Now people will say, 'Why don't you fight[Nassourdine] Imavov?' I don't mind that fight either," he added."I want to fight somebody that gets me to my ****** le again. KamaruUsman, yes, he's a bit older, but now you look at what [Justin]Gaethje just did, so that throws that argument out the windowimmediately."
While Usman and du Plessis are now confirmed to be squaring off atUFC Oklahoma City on July 18, the latter claims "The NigerianNightmare" wasn't keen on the matchup. Ahead of the two formerchampions' clash, du Plessis has revealed that the UFC had toconvince Usman to sign the contract.
The UFC Oklahoma City main event announcement was left until the11th hour, despite du Plessis claiming weeks earlier that he'd beenoffered a fight and was waiting for his opponent to sign thecontract. With the Fight Night headlining bout now confirmed,"Stillknocks" has opened up about how it came together.
"He didn't want to sign the contract. I know that for a fact," duPlessis said in an interview with Fight Forecast. "I spoke to theUFC and they said, 'We finally convinced him to sign.' If you needconvincing to sign, that's a problem, but I can't blame him. Iwould also not want to fight me right now. It would be the smartmove not to sign the fight, but let's go."
While Usman is a couple of years removed from his dominantwelterweight ****** le run, du Plessis isn't counting out theNigerian-American, especially considering how Usman's teammateJustinGaethje defeated the far younger IliaTopuria at UFC Freedom 250.
"We've been talking about the fight for a long time. He's mentionedthe fight way before we made the fight and I said, 'Well, cool.I'll take that fight.' Now people will say, 'Why don't you fight[Nassourdine] Imavov?' I don't mind that fight either," he added."I want to fight somebody that gets me to my ****** le again. KamaruUsman, yes, he's a bit older, but now you look at what [Justin]Gaethje just did, so that throws that argument out the windowimmediately."
23 days ago
