Robert Whittaker admits he ‘underestimated’ Dricus Du Plessis: ‘If you don’t kill him, he’s going to win’

Whittaker is giving credit where credit is due to Du Plessis, whose fight style may not be pretty but certainly seems to work.

185 pound champion Dricus Du Plessis continues to shock and amaze fighters and fans with his unlikely wins, largely due to his unorthodox style that seems like it shouldn’t work but keeps earning him wins against the best middleweights in the world.

At UFC 305, he defeated Israel Adesanya to cement his position at the top of the division. And in July 2023 he took out Robert Whittaker, earning a TKO win in the second round. During a new interview with Submission Radio, “The Reaper” discussed “DDP” and his unlikely success.

“I thought Adesanya looked spectacular,” he said of the UFC 305 showdown. “I thought this was probably the best version we saw of him. He was very effective. He looked in his groove. He was landing big shots. But man, DDP is one of those guys that if you don’t kill him, he’s going to win the fight. You got to really take the fight to him for 25 minutes. And if you if you give him any space, if you give him any opportunity to crawl back in, he just keeps coming.”

“You cannot sit on your laurels. You need to be wired on, locked in for 25 minutes.”

“I’d like to think that I never underestimate my opponents, but I probably did him,” Whittaker admitted regarding Du Plessis. “Maybe. It’s hard to say. You know, the prep wasn’t ideal. And everybody says it: you look at him fight, and the guy looks like a pub fighter, right? But he just keeps smashing people. In that first fight with him, I saw the punches coming. I moved out of the way. I felt good in there. I was like, I got this. And then I got punched in the face, right?”

“It’s not a pretty style, but it’s effective. Super effective. And I think the biggest thing is the mentality behind his shots. If you’re not at that level, like, if you’re not on the same plane of offering as he is, then he’s going to run away with it.”

At this point, Whittaker doesn’t see any of the current big names beating Du Plessis. Not Sean Strickland, who the UFC has tapped for the next title shot, or Alex Pereira, who says he wants to move back down to middleweight to face the South African champion.

“He’s been fighting up there [at 205] for a while now,” Whittaker said of Pereira. “So it’s it would be it would take a lot out of him to get down. And Dricus is so strong there ... Dricus hits hard. You saw that in the fight against Adesanya. Adesanya has a really good chin, and Dricus was still hurting him enough to make him uncomfortable.”

“Dricus is a hard fight. He just has that insane pressure and willingness to get hit to to land hits. And he wins that fight [against Strickland] a lot of the time. I think he’s going to be he’s a hard fight for a lot of people.”

Next up for Robert Whittaker is a long-awaited showdown with Khamzat Chimaev in Abu Dhabi at UFC 208 on October 26th. It’s a pivotal fight for the Australian’s career, and “Bobby Knuckles” believes his gameplan is no big secret.

“It’s quite simple, you know,” he said. “You’ve got to worry about how hard he’s going to push the wrestling envelope in the first few rounds. And then what I’m going to do after that, after I stop the takedowns, after I get back up or whatever, and just taking the fight to him? Everyone can see how this fight’s going to play out. Everyone can make a rough plan on how to approach it. So what you’re thinking is probably what I’m doing.”