Robert Whittaker confident he would dethrone Dricus Du Plessis in a rematch: “9 times out of 10 I beat him”

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is confident he would dethrone Dricus Du Plessis if given a rematch.

Whittaker (24-7 MMA) and Du Plessis (21-2 MMA) collided last July in Las Vegas, where the South African defeated the New Zealand-born Australian by way of second-round TKO.

That victory ultimately earned ‘DDP’ a title fight with Sean Strickland at UFC 297 and saw him take home the UFC middleweight strap after a hard-fought split decision victory.

While Robert Whittaker is currently preparing for a fight opposite Paulo Costa at UFC 298, ‘The Reaper’ has his sights set on a rematch with Dricus Du Plessis in the near future.

“Dricus is a hungry guy, man,” Whittaker said during the UFC 298 pre-fight press conference in Sydney (h/t MacLife / MMAJunkie). “You saw in his last fight, and I think I underestimated that hunger. I still believe I beat him nine times out of 10. I still believe I’m a better fighter than he is, that I have a better skill set than he does. But mate: big strong guy that’s hungry and willing to leave it all there? You need to match that. I feel like I didn’t do that in that last fight.”

Robert Whittaker continued:

“He’s definitely on a list that I want to run it back with. I just didn’t turn up last time. Like I said, nine times out of 10 I beat him, and I think next time we cross paths, it’s going to be one of those nine times.”

Prior to his loss to Du Plessis, Whittaker was coming off a unanimous decision win over Marvin Vettori. ‘The Reaper’ has gone 4-3 over his past seven Octagon appearances, suffering two losses to Israel Adesanya during that stretch.

Do you think Robert Whittaker would be able to best Dricus Du Plessis if the pair were to rematch in the future?