Dricus Du Plessis, a fighter with an impressive 20-2 record, learned a hard lesson about leaping out of the Octagon. He did so to meet none other than Donald Trump at UFC 290. The price for this impromptu meeting was steep.
Known as “Stillknocks,” Du Plessis is set to go head-to-head with Sean Strickland. Strickland, with a record of 28-5, is the current middleweight titleholder. Their clash is scheduled for UFC 297 on January 20 in Toronto.
How did Du Plessis earn this shot? Well, he knocked out former champ Robert Whittaker in the second round at UFC 290. This happened back in July. After his win over “The Reaper,” Du Plessis did something unexpected. He hopped over the fence to meet former U.S. President Donald Trump. This stunt cost him a cool $10,000.
The fine wasn’t a shocker. Du Plessis, a South African, had been warned multiple times about the consequences. But he found the opportunity to meet Trump “too cool” to pass up.
“They said – they told us beforehand – if you jump over [the fence], you’re getting a $10,000 fine,” the 29-year-old fighter explained in a Fight in Sight interview. He was puzzled by the repeated warnings. “I don’t know why you guys keep on hammering about me jumping over the fence. I’ve never done it before. It was literally the last instruction I got just before walking into the cage.”
But when he saw Trump stand up and applaud him after the fight, he couldn’t resist. “This is too cool of a moment for me to let by,” he said. So, he jumped the fence and greeted Trump. “This was the president of the United States. I wasn’t not going to greet him; this is amazing,” he added.