Overview
- The UFC confirmed Dricus du Plessis will face Kamaru Usman in the five-round main event at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on July 18.
- Usman said on his Pound 4 Pound podcast on Thursday that the fight had only been 'mentioned' to him and that he only knew it was official when the UFC announced the bout.
- Du Plessis has been inactive since losing the middleweight title to Khamzat Chimaev in August 2025 and posted that he was traveling from South Africa to the U.S. ahead of the July 18 fight.
- Early betting markets opened with du Plessis favored, and pundits have pointed to Usman’s wrestling and du Plessis’s takedown defense as key stylistic factors in the matchup.
- A win for either former champion would quickly reposition that fighter in the middleweight title picture and shape the UFC’s next match-making choices after the late-stage booking and announcement friction.