Dricus du Plessis fires back at UFC rivals, Dan Hooker defends Justin Gaethje, Bryce Mitchell shares update on podcast future: MMA News Roundup

Dricus du Plessis hits back at UFC rivals, Dan Hooker defends Justin Gaethje, and Bryce Mitchell shares major update on podcast future.

Find out more details in today's (Feb. 19) Sportskeeda daily news roundup.

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#3. Dricus du Plessis fires back at UFC rivals

Dricus du Plessis recently responded to criticism from Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya after the two former UFC middleweight champions made comments about his fighting style.

Speaking on a recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, 'Stillknocks' was asked about the recent collaboration between Adesanya and Whittaker. In a video on Adesanya's YouTube channel, the pair stated that du Plessis' fight style is awkward and that he's the "best sh*t fighter in the world."

The South African, who remains the only man to have knocked out both Adesanya and Whittaker, responded:

"When I saw Izzy and Whittaker saying they don't know how this works. What is going? And I finished both these guys, that was something good because that means they still haven't figured out how to beat me. That means they still haven't figured out what went wrong... You only get lucky that many times."

Catch Dricus du Plessis' comments here (12:55):

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#2. Dan Hooker defends Justin Gaethje's UFC 300 knockout loss

Dan Hooker recently opted to defend Justin Gaethje's knockout loss to Max Holloway ahead of their upcoming five-round bout at UFC 313 next month.

According to 'The Hangman', the result of the fight doesn't tell the entire story. While the ending of the fight has been etched in history as one of the promotion's greatest knockouts, Hooker believes it may have been a different result if Gaethje didn't suffer a broken nose early in the fight.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Believe You Me podcast, Hooker said:

"It was a very competitive fight, I think Justin was even getting the better of it until a spinning back kick lands on his nose... You know what it's like when you get your nose shattered in the first-round, you can't breathe, you can't see. Round two and three there were some eyepokes... I don't take too much from that fight, even stylistically...What most people take away from that fight is that Max outclassed Gaethje. I don't think it's that... It was just a bit of a banana-peel fight."

Check out Dan Hooker's comments below (1:49:50):

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#1. Bryce Mitchell shares major update on podcast future

Bryce Mitchell recently shared a major update regarding the future of his ArkanSanity podcast following widespread backlash he faced last month.

Mitchell saw himself make headlines around the world after he released the first episode of his podcast. During the show, 'Thug Nasty' made a number of controversial comments regarding Adolf H*tler, including that he was a "good guy" and somebody he could go fishing with.

Following the backlash, it had been expected Mitchell's podcast would be a one and done, However, the UFC featherweight contender has confirmed the second episode is in the works.

Speaking in a video uploaded to his Instagram, Mitchell said:

"Hey, I want you all to know that episode two of ArkanSanity is coming. I do not care what anybody except God thinks about me, and I'm not letting a little bit of criticism stop me. In fact, I think that was a crazy amount of feedback for a first episode on a podcast, so I'm definitely not gonna stop."

Watch Mitchell's video below: