Dana White commends Dricus du Plessis for smart move ahead of UFC 312 that's rarely seen in MMA: "That's one of the things that boxing has over us"

Dricus du Plessis was showered with kind words by UFC CEO Dana White in a recent sitdown with Mark Bouris on the Straight Talk podcast. During the interview, White praised the UFC middleweight champion and his team for traveling to Sydney, Australia two weeks ahead of UFC 312.

This allowed du Plessis to acclimate to the changes as opposed to others who arrive late and subsequently struggle with jet lag. Fortunately for du Plessis, his entire camp was built around his needs for his upcoming title defense, which White believes is more common in boxing:

"I ran into du Plessis in the elevator at the hotel and his coach, and they were telling me... I mean these guys do everything right. They're actually really smart in how they approach everything. He got here, I'll give you an example, he got here over two weeks ago to acclimate to the time and all the other things. I think that's one of the things that boxing has over us. Because we had such humble beginnings and we're only 30 years old as a sport. These guys don't do the things that boxers do."

Check out Dana White praising Dricus du Plessis (11:43):

This will be du Plessis' second fight on Australian soil. He previously fought in the city of Perth at UFC 305, submitting middleweight great Israel Adesanya in round four of their grudge match.

Now, he must defeat Sean Strickland in a rematch of their earlier UFC 297 encounter, which saw du Plessis claim UFC gold.

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Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland have something in common regarding Australia

The very first time Dricus du Plessis fought in Australia, he defeated Israel Adesanya to defend his middleweight title. It was possibly his most impressive win to date, and it is similar, in some respects, to Sean Strickland, whose first fight Down Under was also against Adesanya.

Moreover, it was also a championship bout, as Strickland authored the greatest performance of his career to date when he dismantled Adesanya en route to a unanimous decision win in arguably the biggest upset in middleweight history.