Dricus du Plessis returned to competition after 11 months away and beat Kamaru Usman by unanimous decision at a UFC Fight Night in Oklahoma City on Saturday.
The judges scored the middleweight bout 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46, all for the South African, Al Jazeera reported. The fight took place at the Paycom Center.
A one-sided five rounds
The scorecards understate how the fight looked. One judge gave Du Plessis every round; the other two gave him four of five.
He controlled the striking throughout, landing 136 significant strikes to Usman's 92, and 139 to 99 in total strikes. That is a comfortable margin over 25 minutes rather than a decisive one, and it reflects a fight decided by accumulation and pace rather than by any single moment.
Du Plessis moves to 24-3 in mixed martial arts. Usman falls to 21-5.
The layoff
The result matters most for what preceded it. Du Plessis had not fought since August 2025, when he lost the middleweight title to Khamzat Chimaev.
Eleven months out is a long absence in a sport where inactivity erodes timing faster than it does conditioning, and returning fighters often look a half-step behind for a round or two before settling. He did not, which is the most useful thing the performance tells anyone about where he is now.
"I had to get up. There's so many South African kids that look up to me. It's bigger than me. I can't go lie down," he said afterward.
Two former champions
Usman's presence gave the result its weight. This was a meeting of two ex-UFC champions, and for a stretch of his career Usman was among the most dominant titleholders the promotion has had.
For Du Plessis, this was the fight that establishes whether a title challenge is realistic or whether the Chimaev defeat marked the end of his run at the top. Beating a former champion clearly, in his first outing back, is the answer that keeps the question open.
Neither the promotion nor either fighter has indicated what comes next.
