For ex-champs Kamaru Usman and Dricus du Plessis, UFC Oklahoma City looks like a no-man’s land

They should’ve called this weekend’s fight card in Oklahoma City, “UFC Fight Night: No Man’s Land,” because that’s kind of what it feels like. Not only is it happening in the middle of the country just a week after the Conor McGregor vortex known as UFC 329, it features a pair of fighters with abstract bearings in the UFC ranks — the South African former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, and the former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

>So this is where they shuttle off those fighters who don’t fit neatly into any title picture. To “The Big Friendly,” the proud home of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Last week the UFC mistook boxing’s Shakur Stephenson for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Jalen Williams, and this week OKC mistakes “DDP” for a contender.

>The UFC and OKC, it can be said, have a complicated relationship.

>Du Plessis lost his 185-pound belt to Khamzat Chimaev in such undramatic fashion at UFC 319, that beating Usman guarantees him virtually nothing, especially since he’s already faced Sean Strickland (the interloper who took the belt from Chimaev a couple of months back) twice before. As far as stakes go, du Plessis is perhaps too damn close to the situation to jump back in with a win over an enterprising welterweight.

Dricus du Plessis hasn't fought since his August 2025 blowout loss to Chimaev.Ed Mulholland via Getty ImagesAs for Usman?

>Well, see, this is where thing’s go from abstract to full-fledged Rothko.

>Usman swore he’d done enough to earn a welterweight title shot by beating Joaquin Buckley 13 months ago, but UFC matchmakers thought otherwise. Why? Because before beating Buckley, Usman hadn’t won a fight at 170 pounds since 2021, which was something more than a minor detail. The division is teeming with contenders. Next month, Ian Machado Garry will take on Islam Makhachev at UFC 330 for the 170-pound title, and the young sensation Michael Morales will weigh-in as the back-up, meaning it’s already a crowded room down there.

>So Usman is going up to middleweight, a division he made a cameo in back in 2023 against Chimaev. As always, Usman sees himself perhaps closer to a title than a discerning public does. This week he’s contending that a victory over “DDP” would deliver him a middleweight title shot. Straddling a line between two divisions can be rough on the legs of a 39-year-old ex-champion. But that’s where Usman is at.

>When asked who would be next at the UFC OKC media day, Usman all but let out a bored, “duh!”

>“Sean Strickland,” he said. “I mean, that makes sense. That’s pretty easy. It’s either Sean Strickland or Islam [Makhachev], if Islam is still the champion, which I assume he will be.”

Kamaru Usman was once the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.Chris Unger via Getty ImagesNot that it’s altogether impossible, as UFC fans of 2026 well know. Usman just watched his Colorado-based gym-mate Justin Gaethje cut the line in front of Arman Tsarukyan, and look at Gaethje now. He’s the UFC’s lightweight champion, the icon of 2026 who crammed a bunch of long odds up the betting public’s … well, you know … the place that Frank Mir used to store his horseshoes.

>If Usman — who is currently ranked No. 10 in the UFC’s Meta Rankings at 170 pounds, and unranked as a middleweight — can beat du Plessis (currently ranked No. 2 at 185 pounds), there’s a chance he leapfrogs the field. Still, there are contenders like Nassourdine Imavov out there, who’ve been biding their time for a long while. There’s also Joe Pyfer, and Chimaev and Caio Borralho.

>It would be tough to justify making Usman a No. 1 contender after his first victory, even if the crowd is on his side. The Nigerian-born Usman grew up in Dallas two hours to the north of Oklahoma City from the time he was eight years old, thus making his return a bit of a regional home game. Here’s guessing if he upsets the far larger du Plessis, there will be a strong “Y’all must’ve forgot” vibe in the Paycom Center.

>And the truth is, there’s still a lot of intrigue left with Usman, a residual glow to what once was. At one point he was beginning to knock at the door of Georges St-Pierre, the longtime welterweight champion who holds a distinction of being among the best UFC fighters ever. Between 2019-2021, Usman defended the welterweight title five times, which was beautiful run.

>The only problem was he beat Jorge Masvidal twice, Colby Covington twice and Gilbert Burns, a hit list that has aged a little less glowingly than he’d have liked. After getting knocked out spectacularly by Leon Edwards in Salt Lake City — and then losing the trilogy fight seven months later — a lot of Usman’s mojo went up in smoke.

>If there are definitive stakes to Saturday night’s main, it’s that du Plessis has a chance to take whatever is left.

>Still, when asked if the move to middleweight presented an easier path to a title, Usman showed some agility in his footwork.

>

>“I wouldn’t say easier,” he said. “I think it just fit. It just made sense. I obviously wanted the Islam fight. We talked about that and I thought that was what was going to be next, but unfortunately, in these things like this, the company kind of has a say — a big say — in this and they felt this was an opportunity.

>“Obviously, I’ve been up here before and fought the former champion, and so this one just made sense at this time, but it’s definitely not easy. I wouldn’t say easier, with respect to some of these guys right now at the top [at middleweight]. I mean, guys like Jared Cannonier, guys like Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho, all these guys, ‘Robocop’ [Gregory Rodrigues] — all of these guys are extremely tough, just like [Carlos] Prates and Morales, and all these guys [at welterweight]. Hey, it is what it is,”

>Maybe that would’ve fit the bill, too: “UFC Fight Night: It Is What It Is.”

>So what is it exactly? It seems OKC is hosting a couple of ex-champions in purgatory.