Dricus Du Plessis is a brave guy. You have to be to fight like the UFC middleweight champ does. Not to mention he is never afraid of saying what he thinks. Whether it is getting angry at Dana White in regards to the head honcho siding with Sean Strickland winning their UFC 297 clash to making both ‘Tarzan’ and Adesanya cry ahead of their respective bouts with the South African. In fact, this is one of the reasons Du Plessis is a veritable superstar in the promotion and so beloved by fans.

And the roots of this persona, which would eventually earn him loads of fans were apparent from the start, going back to a time when few people even knew who ‘DDP’ was. Or so Chael Sonnen thinks, as he spoke about the first time he paid any attention to the South African- the build-up to UFC 285 last year.

“The biggest thing that Dricus had done that gave us meaning was he interrupted the idea of Bo Nickal being on a main card with him as an undercard [fighter]. I will never forget the way Dricus went about that. It is maybe the biggest piece of this whole story truly. If you have a board of dominoes and they all fall, this was the piece that started that. Not a different fight, not a manager, not an interview. He had a very specific problem and it was an odd problem ‘cuz it wasn’t with his opponent,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel.

“He had a problem with something completely different, and it was an opportunity, going in this case, to Bo Nickal, who was debuting. And Dricus simply did not believe we should be on the same card and you’re debuting on a main card and I’m not. It was an interesting point,” he added.

Of course, Du Plessis would go on to become champion pretty soon, while Bo Nickal has had a much harder time- in large part precisely because of the high, main-card-on-debut-worthy expectations from him. And Du Plessis had almost entirely correctly predicted this.

Dricus Du Plessis foreshadowed the divergent paths his and Nickal’s career would take

Indeed, Bo Nickal, former three-time NCAA D1 wrestling champ, was coming into the UFC on massive, Khamzat Chimaev-like hype. Which is why the UFC chose to put him on the main card at UFC 285 on debut. But ‘DDP’ was quite upset at it. The South African, set to fight Derek Brunson on the March 2023 card, justifiably felt the decision was “bulls**t” since at that point he “had four fights, three performance bonuses, and I get booted to the undercard.”

But Du Plessis didn’t blame Nickal for it. “It’s not his fault. He’s only here to fight,” ‘DDP’ added before ominously adding “but the proofs in the pudding. Once you get under those lights, let’s see how you perform then.” Indeed there is no doubt who shone under the bright lights and who wilted under them. After all, the South African has gone on to beat the very best in the world and is beloved by fans.

On the other hand, Nickal, although undefeated, has had a bunch of underwhelming performances against unranked guys and often gets booed by the fans during, after, and at times, even before his fights. The arc of the universe, it seems, does bend towards justice. What do you think about Chael Sonnen’s thoughts on Dricus Du Plessis’ ‘first domino’ to becoming a UFC champ and a superstar?