Dricus du Plessis and girlfriend celebrate his International Fighter of the Year award in adorable social media post

Dricus du Plessis was awarded the International Fighter of the Year award at the annual MMA Awards and shared a heartwarming celebratory post on Instagram alongside his girlfriend, Vasti Spiller.

'Stillknocks' became the first-ever South African UFC champion when he defeated Sean Strickland at UFC 297 to win the middleweight title. He followed that up by beating arguably the greatest fighter to ever grace the 185-pound division, Israel Adesanya, in his first title defense at UFC 305.

Du Plessis holds an 8-0 record inside the octagon, and will certainly look to extend his undefeated UFC record in 2025.

After being crowned the best international MMA fighter of 2025, the middleweight champion's girlfriend took to Instagram to share this:

"International Fighter of The Year"

Check out Dricus du Plessis and Vasti Spiller below:

Du Plessis took to the comments section of the post and wrote this:

"Thank you my love" [Translatedrfrom Afrikaans]

Spiller responded with this:

"Just the beginning" [Translated from Afrikaans]

Screenshot of Du Plessis and his girlfriend's comments

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Dricus du Plessis is one-half of Jon Anik's dream UFC matchup

Dricus du Plessis is the current king of the middleweight division, as well as being part of UFC commentator Jon Anik's dream matchup right now. The other side to the play-by-play commentator's most sought-after pairing is none other than Khamzat Chimaev.

Chimaev recently defeated Robert Whittaker via submission in Round 1 at UFC 308, with 'Borz' handing his opponent the first submission loss of his UFC career.

Before the Chechen's win over Whittaker, Sean Strickland was expected to face Du Plessis for the middleweight title in a rematch of their UFC 297 clash. But Chimaev's sensational performance has thrust him to the front of the line for a middleweight title shot in the eyes of many fans and pundits.

Anik was recently interviewed by Odd Sharks Sports, who asked him to share his dream UFC matchup. He said this:

"My dream matchup right now is Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dricus du Plessis. I'm not sure that we can put together a more interesting championship matchup right now. With respect to Sean Strickland, who is a deserving number one contender and former champion, I think Khamzat Chimaev really upset the apple cart with what he did against Robert Whittaker. That's the fight that I would like to see."

Check out Jon Anik's comments below: