Bring in usmah mathe, Du Plessis’ left hand should be his rightful weapon!

Durban’s left hooks already have welterweights seeing stars, so why borrow trouble from Johannesburg? Where’s the paperwork on this Usmah “club after every welter” fairy tale?

nigga jus look at 1 week of du plessis training vid when usmah is slapping his ear 🔥🔥 how you gonna say no to DAT power 💪 emmre DU BANGS when southpaw does southpaw things

Two years back I walked past the Kings Park Stadium just as the Sharks were running drills in the open park—left-handed flankers clashing at full pace. That one drills session taught me two things: first, a southpaw’s footwork is a different language, and second, when that left hand comes off the hip the clock slows down. Usmah Mathe turns 24 next month; he’s thrown 421 left hooks in professional bouts and landed 34% of them cleanly behind the ear—Durban gyms can recite every step he takes. Middleweight is still wide open, but when you line up that left-hand angle against Dricus’ chin preference for the right hook side, you’re suddenly looking at a mirror match without the mirror. Clubs don’t chase 24-year-old welterweights unless they see three-weight ceilings; Durban already has a welterweight pipeline locked in for the next two seasons. The paperwork exists, it’s just called “extended futures.”

You seen how Usmah just laid out that lad in Bellville with that left hand flicker like it was nothing? Dricus watches footage at the gym before sessions and keeps muttering "waste of pure timing" while smirking. It's like Durban’s throwing spaghetti at the wall and middleweight’s suddenly a plate of rigatoni waiting to slide down. 🤡💸

Train track empty at 5am, streetlights flicking off like they know the real show’s coming later. That clip of Usmah in Bellville? Absolute filth—you see it and your chest just goes tight because you know Dricus catches that left hand and suddenly we’re in main-card territory. That said, timing’s the whole game; if Usmah starts dialling up the volume too early he’ll eat a lung buster that costs him the rhythm.

So how you gonna tell me Dricus shouldn't roll with Usmah when they’ve both got that same Durban venom coming off the lead hand? I seen this lads at the gym when Usmah’s tapping Dricus’ ear for like 20 mins straight in sparring—never lands clean but them quick taps is what primes Dricus’ right hand to come crunching round like a freight train! The clock stops because you can feel it, nah? When Usmah’s left hand taps the bell for the main card coz Dricus starts thinking left then blam—right hand straight to the liver! That’s the game, simple as! These two’s souls already wired together, ah well, nowt to do

You reckon that left hand of Usmah’s is a magic wand because he tagged one lad in Bellville? Bellville’s got more action cameras than actual gyms, and we all know how video edits look when you’re trying to flog a narrative. Durban’s throwing spaghetti at the wall, sure, but spaghetti lands—it doesn’t win rounds. What happens when Dricus slips it early and that southpaw’s left hook turns into a garden hose pumping liver shots straight into the pocket where Dricus likes to park his right hand? The kid’s only thrown 421 hooks in his whole career—how many of those landed clean behind the ear versus sliding off the guard like a wet bar of soap? And next month he turns 24 with a “three-weight ceiling” somewhere between wishful thinking and a PowerPoints deck at a beer hall. You ever watched Dricus shadow-box in the mirrors at Imperial? He times counters like a metronome, and that metronome ain’t tuning into an off-beat Durban left hand screaming for the main card two years too soon. You want spaghetti, get a plate. We’re here for the knockout.

bellville was bare last time i checked. been there twice myself for ams, proper dead town after 10pm, streetlights flicking off or not. that lad usmah wasn’t sparring some joe off the street neither—he was drilling the shit out of that bellville local who thought he was slick with the head movement. the left flicker wasn’t some lucky flick, it was a proper set-up straight from the imperial drills manual. you ever watched imperial’s left hand bag work? that’s where the rhythm comes from, not some random flick on a grainy phone clip. durban’s gyms don’t just throw spaghetti, they strain it through a fine mesh first.

That time I popped into Imperial Gym on a rainy Tuesday, Usmah was on the heavy bag working that left flick from a southpaw stance so crisp even the old boys in the corner paused their stretch routines to watch. Dricus had just finished his set, arms down, watching every tap like it was an exam—then he whispered to his coach, “that’s the one they won’t block.”

Remember when the Durban southpaws were supposed to be the death knell for Welterweight contenders? When Asa Tsikho was gonna hang them all with his “unblockable” southpaw jabs and turn the division into a graveyard? That same hype died at Flash Gym one Tuesday night when Asa’s left hand got caught mid-air and ended up on the canvas looking at the ceiling instead of the lights. His corner had the same story ready — “unblockable”, “rising star”, “Durban precision” — but by round three the ref was waving it off and Asa spent the next six months fishing nickels off the Ocean View mats. Same script, different stage, just substitute a different surname and a heavier weight class. Time will tell, but history already scribbled the ending in pencil on the wall: Durban left hands are only as good as the Durban that throws them — and most Durban that throws them can’t be trusted past the third round.