Ultimate acertou a contratação de Dricus du
Plessis, ex-campeão do KSW, e estreia deve ser no dia 10 de outubro
contra Markus Maluko. Após longa disputa com o evento polonês,
sul-africano conseguiu sua dispensa e assinou com UFC. Brasileiro
já assinou contrato da luta.
#feedmma— Raphael Marinho (@raphamarinho)
September 24, 2020
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. A big South African prospect has been let out of his
KSW contract and has opted to sign with the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. According to a report from
Combate on Thursday, Dricus du
Plessis (14-2) has secured his release from KSW after
battling with the Polish promotion the last few months. Du
Plessis will be stepping in on short notice in a middleweight bout
against Markus
Perez (12-3) at
UFC Fight Night 179, which will be held on Oct. 10 at the Flash
Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Perez was originally scheduled to face the undefeated grappling
phenom Rodolfo
Vieira, but Vieira
suffered a rib injury and was forced to withdraw from the
contest. “Maluko” called out several opponents including Khamzat
Chimaev and Kevin
Holland, but the organization elected to sign du Plessis
instead.
Du Plessis bounced back from his first knockout loss – and a KSW
championship defeat – to Roberto
Soldic in 2018 with two finishes. Moving back to the
middleweight division, “Stillknocks” smashed Joilton
Lutterbach at KSW 50 before returning to EFC in South Africa to
defend his strap against Brendan
Lesar in December.
Since signing with the UFC, Perez has alternated wins and losses in
the form of three unanimous decision defeats and two submission
wins. Of note, Perez became the first man to beat former
Legacy Fighting Alliance 185-pound champ Anthony
Hernandez. Three-quarters of Perez’ career wins have come by
finish, including tapouts in his last three victories over
Hernandez, James
Bochnovic and Ian
Heinisch.
UFC Fight Night 179 on Oct. 10 will be held on Yas Island in Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where it will be headlined by a
bantamweight scrap between Marlon
Moraes and Cory
Sandhagen. The bout order of the card is not yet set, although
main card matchups will likely include a heavyweight tilt of
Ben
Rothwell vs. Marcin
Tybura, with Edson
Barboza reportedly
facing Makwan
Amirkhani at featherweight.
