One of South Africa’s hottest prospects has joined the UFC roster.
With Rodolfo Vieira out due to a rib injury, former EFC dual-champ Dricus du Plessis will step in to face Markus Perez at the UFC’s Oct. 10 event, which takes place at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
MMA Junkie confirmed the booking with multiple people with knowledge of the matchup. The people requested anonymity because the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. Combate was the first to report the news Thursday.
Du Plessis (14-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has finished all 14 of his pro wins and is coming off a first-round submission of Brendan Lesar last December. In that fight, Du Plessis captured the EFC middleweight title. The 26-year-old is also a former KSW welterweight champion.
Perez (12-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC), a former LFA middleweight champion, has split his past four appearances, with his two wins coming via submission. In his past outing in November, he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Wellington Turman at UFC on ESPN+ 22.
With the addition, the UFC’s Oct. 10 lineup now includes:
- Marlon Moraes vs. Cory Sandhagen
- Edson Barboza vs. Sodiq Yusuff
- Markus Perez vs. Rodolfo Vieira
- Seungwoo Choi vs. Youssef Zalal
- Ben Rothwell vs. Marcin Tybura
- Thomas Almeida vs. Alejandro Perez
- Tracy Cortez vs. Bea Malecki
- Chris Daukaus vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
- Tom Aspinall vs. Serghei Spivac
- Ali Alqaisi vs. Tony Kelley
- Giga Chikadze vs. Omar Morales
- Bruno Silva vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Dricus Du Plessis vs. Markus Perez
