Where is Dricus du Plessis From? Parents, Ethnicity & French Connection

Dricus Du Plessis has remained unbeaten in the UFC, and in this journey, he’s beaten top contenders and more than a couple of former champions, establishing himself as a top star in the promotion. The UFC middleweight champion is now looking to maintain his winning ways this weekend when he locks horns for the first time against the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 in Chicago.

However, when ‘Stillknocks’ targeted Israel Adesanya and gave fuel to the ‘real African’ debate, the fighting community began to wonder about the origins of the South African star. As such, there might be some confusion about his background, so ahead of UFC 319, let’s find out where the UFC middleweight champion’s roots lie.

Is Dricus du Plessis South African? Ethnicity and nationality

A South African by nationality, the 31-year-old is an Afrikaner by ethnicity. For the unversed, Afrikaners are a very common ethnic group in South Africa who have their origins in Europe. While Afrikaners are spread around du Plessis’s whole country, his birthplace of Welkom is the hometown of more than just his ethnic group.

In fact, Welkom is filled with people who belong to a variety of Asian communities, Indian communities, black Africans, and even other kinds of white and colored people whose ancestors migrated from other regions around the world. But where are his ancestors from?

The French connection of Dricus du Plessis

‘Stillknocks’ is speculated to have ancestors who migrated to South Africa from France. His surname, ‘du Plessis’, primarily originates from the minor places situated in northern France. The reason for the migration was religious persecution, which led them to leave their home country of France and settle in Brandenburg-Prussia. However, the 31-year-old believes wholeheartedly that he is South African and takes pride in his national identity. Dricus du Plessis claims to feel honored to represent his country of South Africa and is truly proud of becoming the first fighter to bring UFC gold to his country.

When Israel Adesanya faced off against Dricus du Plessis, they both got into an argument at the UFC 305 pre-fight press conference about the latter’s roots. But ‘Stillknocks’ stood tall in his belief that he was the ‘real African’. He said, “Stating facts. Where do I reside? What’s my postal code? Where do I train? Where do I live? Where was I born? In South Africa. Still there. Still training. And I won this belt from South Africa. I didn’t try anywhere else. That was the only thing I stated.” Now that we’ve established the UFC star’s background story, let’s take a look at the information about the people in Dricus du Plessis’ family.

Who are Dricus du Plessis’ parents?

The middleweight title challenger was born on 14th January 1994 in Hatfield, Pretoria, to Japie and Gerda Du Plessis. Both his parents attended Theunissen Hoërskool, in Theunissen, South Africa, where they became familiar with each other. However, Dricus Du Plessis wasn’t their only child because the middleweight champion also has a couple of brothers in his family.

‘Stillknocks’ grew up with two brothers, Neil du Plessis and WC du Plessis. All three brothers have found success in their respective careers, with WC Du Plessis holding the position of CEO at Orzella Investments and Neil Du Plessis having a professional career as an attorney while also competing in MMA and ‘StillKnocks’ fighting for the UFC championship.

Dricus du Plessis is undeniably an incredible fighter and rightly deserves to compete among the top guys in the sport. However, he has been in a controversy about calling himself the ‘real African’ champion. That said, he is indeed South African. 

But coming back to the fight this weekend, do you think the South African champion will be able to successfully defend the belt for a third time in a row? Let us know how you feel the matchup will play out in the comments section below.