UFC analyst Michael Bisping has drawn an interesting comparison between current middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis and MMA legend Dan Henderson.
South African Du Plessis will defend his title against former champion Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 305 this weekend in Perth, Australia. Ahead of the fight, Bisping took to his YouTube channel to break down the matchup.
During his analysis, Bisping noted that while Du Plessis is clearly one of the best fighters in the world right now, he doesn’t always look that good in his training videos.
Bisping, who is a former middleweight champion, explained that he had a similar impression of his long-time rival Dan Henderson back in the day, only to suffer a brutal knockout loss in their first meeting.
“You know who Dricus Du Plessis reminds me of? Dan Henderson,” Bisping said. “When you look at Dan Henderson’s career, he’s absolutely legendary. PRIDE champion, and he had a very long, brilliant, decorated career. Yes, we fought twice in his era, yes, he knocked me out, and yes, he’s not my favorite person, but you have to respect the career that the man had. It’s that simple.
“When you look at it, it seems [expletive]”he added. “I remember my boxing coach watching him. [before our first fight]watching videos, thinking ‘oh my god, we’re going to have a field day’, and of course, I was knocked out, knocked out.
“When I look at Dricus Du Plessis, it’s the same thing. When you look him in the eyes, he’s not as good, but when you’re in there with him and he’s committing to shots and he’s making you move forward and he’s aggressive, it’s a completely different game. That’s why this is going to be tough for Israel Adesanya, because Dricus is going to make you move forward.”
Bisping first fought Henderson at UFC 100 in 2009, where he suffered a brutal one-punch knockout. The pair then met for a second time at UFC 2014 in 2016, after Bisping claimed the middleweight title. On that occasion, the Brit evened the score with a hard-fought decision win.
Du Plessis won the middleweight belt with a decision win over Sean Strickland earlier this year, and earned his title shot with victories over top talents such as Robert Whittaker, Darren Till and Derek Brunson.
Adesanya, a two-time reigning middleweight champion, lost the belt to Strickland by decision last year. He has previously beaten the likes of Alex Pereira, Whittaker, Jared Cannonier, Marvin Vettori, Paulo Costa, Yoel Romero and Anderson Silva.
