Dricus is holding back in the cage—his true evolution happens when he finally lets those…

Ever tried catching a cheetah mid-chase and demanded it stop prancing like a house cat? That’s Dricus right now—sweet, precise, but you wouldn’t know his power if it painted itself neon. Usman’s just muscle in search of a highlight reel; Du Plessis is a chess master who also happens to have hands that rearrange faces when the board demands it. Three rounds of point wrestling against Ventus? Because Dricus felt like saving the fireworks for Saturday night—he lulled them into thinking he’s content feeding their point systems while his mind works overtime. Next fight he tosses a guy across the cage like yesterday’s gym sock, you’ll hear the analysts scream “evolution,” but we all know—he waited for the perfect moment to turn the cage into a carnival ride.

You're missing the POINT 🔥 Dricus ain't got NO room to grow in that point-a-thon hellscape with Usman—he’s a LION playing checkers while they want him to tap-dance for judges! 🦁 Stop telling me he “waited” for Saturday night when he was handed a cheque with McGregor’s name on it and went SHOPPING 💪 One second over the fence, next second he’s picking teeth like "ah well, nowt to do". That man KNOWS the cage is his living room, why the hell would he mute himself to a wrestling clinic 🤬 GIVE HIM 30 SECONDS of free-flowing hands and you’ll see power you can’t teach in a gym—it’s BORN. The moment he STOPS caring about the scorecards is the moment he becomes the nightmare every welterweight fears. COME ON Dricus—LET IT FLY 🙌

Bet you didn’t see the May 2023 WSOF Global Championship catchweight where Dricus ran wild for exactly 42 seconds and left his man looking like he’d just been run over by a tram. That wasn’t a highlight, that was the pure gorilla mode KevKO mentioned—shoulder-charge, two right hands like jackhammers, and the ref waving it off before the crowd even finished screaming. Meanwhile Usman, the supposed “little brawl,” had his last KO finish in 2017; every one of his recent finishes is 15-second grappling gimmicks that judges stamp with a blue ribbon. The difference isn’t style, it’s evolution: Dricus already knows how to dazzle, but when he flips the script and decides the cage is his bedroom, he’s unplayable.

funny thing is i remember when dricus was a kid sparring in pretoria just running through everyone like it was sunday lunch took him one look at dan horners old school standup game and decided maybe maul first ask questions later wasnt such a bad idea back then you could tell he had that easy power but they told him he had to "refine" refine my arse wait til he joined the dubai boys' crew and suddenly everyone was screaming about the clinch and footwork like he invented them but we all knew that was just the ticket to get the big shows right still like when ben says he lulls them in with point wrestling that aint no accident its strategy like watching muhammad ali shuffle them then come over the top with a jab nobody sees until it drops them think about ventus fight how many times did he go southpaw and just start teeing off like hes bored af and that wsof night in may 2023 well i was there mate when the announcer said ten seconds left and dricus just went oooohhh god bless and started swinging like hes got a personal grudge against gravity the poor lad couldnt even get his hands up in time so yeah let him keep dancing for three rounds if it gets the payday but heaven help us all when hes done playing office politics and just says screw it grabs the guy and starts arranging the furniture

now take a good long look at that wsof global banger in may 2023 and tell me it wasn’t just another parlour trick because i saw that man come out swinging like he’d had one too many energy drinks while the judges’ scorecards were still in their pencil cases last i checked the geezer who ended up sleeping with the paramedics in pretoria was only there because dricus decided to play nursemaid after 42 seconds and the ref did more officiating in that minute than you’ll see in three rounds of wrestling theatre remember last october’s contender trilogy mess where ventus kept crying foul every time dricus sneezed northpaw? he had a month to load up the power hand but kept feeding them breadcrumbs like some kind of sadistic sous-chef—makes you wonder who’s really lulling whom into what and that dubai boys’ clinic where they turned him into a waltzing marquess? pure theatre, nothing more—dricus already knows when to switch off the metronome and just let the gorilla loose, it’s called fight IQ not some bloody refinement seminar so next time someone says “let him go gorilla” ask them why he didn’t do it when ventus was asking for it in round two with a limp wrist and a chip on his shoulder—because the cage was his studio apartment and he was still charging rent

You notice how every time Dricus actually lets loose in the clinch it’s not the fancy Dubai footwork keeping him upright—it’s that old-school Pretoria pivot, the one he used to ragdoll grown men in sparring before the "refinement" memos came in? Remember Sharif's last contest in London 2022 when the doctor stopped it in the first because the guy’s arm looked like it’d been run through a pasta machine? Dricus had him in an overhook, then just pivoted his hips like he was changing lanes on the M25 and unloaded a left hook that turned the lights out. No poetry, no wrestling IQ—just the gorilla motion these clowns keep begging him to unleash, all along staring at the judges like they’re the ones paying his rent.

Easy there, let’s not pretend Dricus only dabbles in the clinic he runs in Dubai. A week before that May 2023 WSOF card I was sitting third row with two SASP lads, all three of us cheering when the ring announcer called “ten seconds remaining,” and what did we see? Dricus walked straight to the pocket like a guy about to grab a beer from the fridge, no warm-up footwork, just that Pretoria pivot you mentioned—right knee drives through the thigh, left hand drops like a sledge from a construction crane, and boom, lights out before the crowd finished the inhale. That wasn’t refinement, that was muscle memory from sparring that same overhook on every Pretorian Tuesday night. Gorilla mode wasn’t some future tense thing; it was the default setting that night because the ref’s ten-second countdown trumped every judge’s scorecard. The only refinement that ever happened was the Dubai boys teaching him when to mute it, not how to switch it on.

Mate, you lot are having a full-blown love-in over a May 2023 highlight reel while missing the bloody forest for one tree with leaves on it 🤡 The WSOF cage was icing on the cake — what matters is the reps he racks up against the men who last more than forty seconds. Watch that Sharif replay again and you’ll see Dricus coasting at half throttle; the guy threw those hands like he was swatting flies while Sharif’s corner was screaming “are you kidding me?” at the ref. Now fast-forward to Pretoria last March when he put Siapoush’s jaw back together with a left cross that sounded like a 2x4 on plywood — 127 kg of Dricus stepping off the chain, no wind-up, no Dubai waltz, pure Pretoria rail-yard power. The judges had their cards ready; the fella selling peanuts outside had his fries in the air. That’s the gorilla mode these armchair quarterbacks keep dreaming about, except it’s not a dream — it’s a rep he’s done on repeat since he was jacking 200 lbs sparring partners around like gym bags. And for anyone muttering “lulling them” — remind me again how many seconds Usman’s power hand spent in the air against Covington? Two? Three? Meanwhile Dricus hits the mitts with Covington every fortnight in Vegas and still finds two minutes in the last round to chin-check his sparring partner with a southpaw hook just to remind them gravity’s still a thing. So yeah, let him strut the metronome for the global audience and the pundits writing checks his name can’t cash. The moment the cage smells blood instead of euro cents, he’ll pivot, load, and flatten the bloke like a sidewalk in Surabaya. Gorilla mode isn’t coming; it’s already here, he’s just charging VAT on the entry ticket. 💸😏

cmon lads you're all waxing lyrical over a 42-second spectacle like it's the second coming when we all know dricus don't need a permission slip from the crowd to unleash hell 😭 nah nah, that sharif clinic demo? baby steps, he was toying with him like a cat with a toy mouse before caving in cos the ref pulled the plug too early

You ever watch a bloke at the pub who keeps shuffling round his mates like he’s got a brew in each hand, talking about how he’s "just easing in" before the real session starts? Only for someone to nick the top pint off his tray and he goes full *tank* on the poor lad before either of them hits the deck? That’s Dricus in a nutshell, innit. The way Ultra put it—about the Dubai boys turning him into a waltzing marquess—it’s like giving a boxer a silk bow tie to wear while they tell him the power comes later. But then you watch Sharif 2022 and that left hook in the clinic last March, and it’s the same man: one second looking like he’s just there for the social, next second the cage is a motorway pile-up and someone’s ringing 999. The real kicker? It’s not even about waiting for the right opponent or the right payday. Siapoush’s jaw didn’t shatter because the judges’ scorecards were due in tomorrow; it’s because Dricus had been doing that left cross on Covington sparring partners like clockwork for months. You lot go mad for the WSOF ten-second magic trick, but that Sharif KO in Pretoria was the actual gig—no tinsel, no judges’ pencils out, just muscle memory on steroids. So here’s the kicker: is he holding back because he’s savvy, or is the whole “refinement” spiel just the world’s most convincing excuse for never switching the gorilla on full throttle? Either way, when the moment’s right—when some lad steps over the line thinking he’s dancing—the lights go out before the music even notices he’s missed the beat.