UFC 305 mailbag: Dricus du Plessis as Schrödinger’s MMA fighter, plus more from a busy night in Perth

UFC 305 is in the books and the champion remains Dricus du Plessis.

In classic DDP form, the champion retained his title with a fourth-round submission that left many fans frustrated by how a fighter who appears to be so flawed can nonetheless be the best in the world. But like him or not, du Plessis is the king of the mountain at 185 pounds, with three straight wins over former UFC champions. It’s his world and we’re just living in it, so let’s talk about the fallout from UFC 305.

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Dricus du Plessis

“DDP: The best worst fighter ever of the worst best fighter ever?”

In the famous words of Old El Paso: ¿Por qué no los dos?

As one of the leading drivers of the DDP bandwagon over the past few years, this weekend was delicious, not because he won, but because he won while being completely true to form. There are a bunch of very smart people who I respect that insist du Plessis is not good, and seeing him break everyone’s brains by winning what should be a terrible matchup — and doing so in classic DDP fashion — is so fun. Because I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t love du Plessis in spite of his flaws, you love him because of them.

Here is an objective fact: du Plessis 8-0 in the UFC with six stoppages, including over the two greatest middleweights of this era, and three straight victories over former champions. Here is a subjective fact: he’s looked ugly as hell in all of those fights, which is why despite the results, there are still many smart people who refuse to respect him. And they’re not entirely wrong! Du Plessis is both unequivocally excellent and obviously deeply flawed. You would never teach someone to fight like him, and yet it undeniably works. He’s Schrödinger’s MMA fighter and I love him dearly.

The reality is, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. You know what they call a guy who wins ugly? A winner. Doesn’t matter how he does it or what it looks like, du Plessis gets the job done. And honestly, skill is overrated in fighting. Sure, it’s good to have and it can absolutely make the difference between evenly matched competitors, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. A lot of the time, fighting is just about being a unit. That’s why, for as much as we love him, Demetrious Johnson would get obliterated by Tai Tuivasa. Being bigger and stronger than your opponent has been the backbone of fighting since the stone age, and DDP has that in spades.

Now, that’s not to say it’s all the champ has. Aside from being a hoss, du Plessis is also extremely durable, loaded with grit, and has a terrific mind for the sport, all of which makes him a handful. The last bit is the most important part though. Despite not hailing from a big gym, du Plessis and his camp has pretty firmly established themselves as elite game-planners, tailoring specific tactics and strategies for each opponent. Against Adesanya, DDP knew exactly how Izzy would approach the fight — and how to take advantage of it — and it played out exactly like that. When you’re that smart about fighting and a physical monster, it’s OK that not everything you throw is textbook.

Ultimately, flaws are only flaws if other fighters can take advantage of them, and thus far, no one in the UFC has for DDP. Could someone do so in the future? Sure, but I won’t be picking against him for the foreseeable future.

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Future challengers

“Which middleweight currently represents the biggest challenger to DDP?”

Well, for all intents and purposes it appears that Sean Strickland will get the next short at du Plessis, and the next challenger is always the biggest, especially given how close their first fight was. That being said, if Strickland beats du Plessis, it will be a classic Strickland split decision, so like, that’s not really fun. It’s just a matter of the judges on the night. If we’re talking about someone who can really take the belt off du Plessis, it’s Khamzat Chimaev.

As mentioned above, du Plessis is this concoction of brains and brawn that makes him really hard to reckon with. To beat him, you either have to have a very defensive style where you can outwork him while not letting him hulk you (Strickland), or you have to meet him head-on with force and out-hulk him. Adesanya tried to do that at points and found that he didn’t have it in him (because again, dude is a HOSS), but Chimaev might. And that’s only a might. I still would pick du Plessis in that fight. But if there’s a dude who can simply out-physical him, DDP doesn’t exactly have the tools to manage that. But beyond that, you’re looking for like, Bo Nickal, and he’s a long way away from coming into this conversation.

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All-Stars

“Who joins DDP on the “MMA Style that Probably Should Not Work but it Does Work” All-Star Team?”

Though I would quibble with this description because I think it in fact should work for DDP (see above), the first person that comes to mind is Justin Gaethje. I said this several times before UFC 305, but du Plessis is a combination of Gaethje from before the Dustin Poirier loss and Yoel Romero (two of my all-time favorites, so of course I love this dude). Gaethje’s self-described style of “creating car crashes” was obviously ridiculous except it totally worked for most of his career.

The next person I think of, though I’m loath to admit it, is Brian Ortega. I feel about Ortega the same way everyone else feels about DDP: he is not good and I don’t understand how he keeps winning. Ortega is among the worst defensive fighters I’ve ever see but gets away with it because he’s impossible to kill and he has such predatory offense that he can get wailed on infinitely and still find a finish.

And of course, the best possible example of this is the man that I desperately need to see du Plessis fight one day: Jiri Prochazka.

Jiri is an absolute maniac when he fights and he doesn’t even have the otherworldly durability of someone like Ortega; he just doesn’t care. Basically, everyone that fights Jiri should Alex Pereira him and yet only “Poatan” has.

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MMA nirvana

“By the gods Jed how do we make Dricus vs Jiri happen, I need to see that fight more than any other besides Topuria-Holloway. It would be the most chaotic evil stupid fun fight since Dada-Kimbo except with actual fighting skill.”

Good God willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll get it, because I need this fight like I need oxygen. Other than Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway, there’s not a fight I want to see more in MMA (including Mariusz Pudzianowski vs. Eddie Hall). I would pay all of King Midas’ silver for that matchup. So we must will it into existence.

(Mike) Heck, I did it with Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Jr., we can to it with this one.

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Alex Pereira

“Will Poatan actually make 185 again?”

Nah. If these two ever fight, it will be up at 205. I doubt Pereira can even make 185 anymore, and even if he did, for what? This is just Alex being very good at understanding that fighting is about keeping as many irons in the fire as you can at all times, because maybe something sparks fan interest and then you have big money.

For what it’s worth, Pereira would boop DDP violently up at light heavyweight, but if he has to cut down to 185, it’s 50/50. Cutting that much weight really diminishes you, I’m not at all confident a drained Pereira can stop DDP’s takedowns.

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Israel Adesanya

“Does this actually free Izzy up to make a REAL 205 move? Like, fight a top contender to establish legitimacy like Alex did.... I’m thinking Izzy Jiri b/c who TF wouldn’t immediately pay all the moneys to see that?”

Immediately after UFC 305, I would have thought Adesanya would use this as an opportunity to move up light heavyweight permanently for the final act of his career, but then in his post-fight presser he said he didn’t want to do that. So him moving up to 205 seems unlikely.

That being said, him fighting Jiri still seems in play. Prochazka’s coach already suggested a possible drop to middleweight for Jiri, and if that happens, a matchup with Adesanya makes all the sense in the world. If not, Adesanya’s next opponent will just depend on timing and how a few of these future fights go. Like, if Robert Whittaker beats Khamzat Chimaev, Adesanya vs. Chimaev makes a lot of sense. Similarly, if Kevin Holland beats Roman Dolidze, that fight makes a ton of sense.

But if you’re looking for a moon shot, something that makes no sense by merit but would be great business and is absolutely possible, it’s Izzy vs. Bo Nickal. If Izzy wins, it was a big fight and Bo doesn’t lose any shine. If Bo wins, man just got fast-tracked to a title shot. Win-win.

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Kai Kara-France

“KKF-Pantoja: is it happening next and who wins?”

In the co-main event at UFC 305, Kai Kara-France stopped his two-fight losing streak with a first-round stoppage of former title challenger Steve Erceg. It was a very good return to form and afterward he called for a shot at flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja. Will he get it? Kind of seems like he might!

The flyweight division is in a weird spot at the moment because Pantoja has already beaten most of the top contenders, and the ones he hasn’t all have some kind of blocker. Amir Albazi is chronically injured, Tatsuro Taira is currently booked, and Muhammad Mokaev is no longer with the UFC because they just didn’t like him. In concept, Mokaev should have been up next; that’s now a complete no-go.

So unless UFC wants to ice Pantoja until after Taira and Brandon Royval fight in October (meaning he probably wouldn’t fight until next year), there are only two real options: either “KKF” gets it, or recent UFC signing and former RIZIN bantamweight champion Kai Asakura gets it. UFC generally hates to give title shots to people who have never fought under the banner, so process of elimination is that Kara-France punched his ticket to a title fight on Saturday.

And should that happen, I’d strongly favor Pantoja to win. He’s just a better all-around fighter. Pants can striker, grapple, mix up the two, and he’s nigh unkillable. I think it will look like most Pantoja fights, which is to say fun as hell with Pantoja retaining his belt.

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Controversy

“Thoughts on the commission sending Howie Booth home after that horrible 30-27 scorecard he turned in for Tai? Do you think this is something we could start seeing more often?”

If you missed it, Howie Booth put down one of the worst scorecards in MMA history at UFC 305, giving Tai Tuivasa a 30-27 against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, despite being massively out-landed in every round and anyone with eyeballs being clear about who won. It’s not the worst scorecard of all-time (shoutout to the two judges who said Mike Easton beat Chase Beebe), but it may well be the worst scorecard in UFC history. It was so bad that the commission yanked him from the event afterward, which was a first as far as I can remember. And I’m glad they did. He has no business ever working again in MMA judging.

I am extremely lenient with MMA judges because the sport is subjective and they have the worst seats in the house. I’ve sat cageside plenty, and until you do it, it’s hard to recognize how different that view can be. I’ve scored fights very differently cageside than I did when I went back and watched them from after. But even taking that into consideration, there are only two plausible explanations for what happened there: gross incompetence or straight up fraud.

There is simply no view of the fight, no angle of the outcome, that is up for that sort of egregious scoring. Either Booth put the wrong numbers in the wrong columns or he had some nefarious ulterior motives. If it’s the latter, banned for life and let’s get the cops involved. If it’s the former, still banned for life. This is serious business and gross incompetence should not be allowed.

And for what it’s worth, I assume the answer is the former. Never ascribe to malice what you can to incompetence. Booth was just woefully, dangerously incompetent, and so had to be removed.

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Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.