[imagesource: Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA TODAY Sports]

UFC 276’s showdown between American Brad Tavares and South African Dricus du Plessis was always likely to be a hard-fought affair.

Few would have predicted such a brutal battle, though, with Dricus eventually coming out on top at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in the early hours of Sunday morning (South African time).

The win sees the South African crack the top 15 of the competition’s rankings, with an impressive record of 17 wins and two losses.

Fittingly labelling the bout a “bloodbath”, The Daily Maverick points out that Tavares actually started the bout with bleached blonde hair:

But after three rounds with the hard-hitting Du Plessis, Tavares’ hair was a deep red, caused by the gushing blood from his nose and right ear – extracted by the ferocious fists of Du Plessis [wearing the blue gloves below].

Image: Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA TODAY Sports

Nicknamed “Stillknocks” for his ability to knock his opponents out – his two previous UFC fights serve as testimony to this – Du Plessis was unable to land a knockout punch to his American opponent. However, enough of his vicious punches landed to provide the South African a unanimous 29-28 result after their three-round slobberknocker.

After the fight, du Plessis was keen to make sure that nobody forgot his name:

“It’s Dricus du Plessis, remember the name!” 😤

🇿🇦 @DricusDuPlessis is one to watch at middleweight! #UFC276 pic.twitter.com/D1hkRJpcAk

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) July 3, 2022

Here’s the full Octagon interview with Joe Rogan, which includes shots of some of the bigger blows landed during the bout:

Kelvin Gastelum is now firmly in his crosshairs. In April, the American claimed he was injured just a week before he was due to fight du Plessis at UFC 273.

During the post-fight interview, and still sporting a number of bruises and wounds, du Plessis once more praised his opponent’s never-say-die attitude:

Dricus du Plessis was as surprised as everyone that Brad Tavares was able to withstand the big shots that he landed against him. pic.twitter.com/UvCuRDZCqj

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) July 3, 2022

In the night’s co-main events, Israel Adesanya defended his UFC middleweight title against Jared Cannonier and Alexander Volkanovski dominated Max Holloway in the featherweight division.

[source:dailymaverick]