Dricus Du Plessis fined $10K for incident involving Donald Trump (Video)

Dricus Du Plessis is out of $10,000 for risking a ‘cool moment’ with Donald Trump. 

A huge fan of MMA, the former President of the United States was in attendance at UFC 290 last July in Las Vegas. The pay-per-view event was headlined by a featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez. Du Plessis fought ex-champion of the middleweight division, Robert Whittaker, on the main card and emerged victorious via a technical knockout in the second round. 

To celebrate the win, Du Plessis broke a rule to shake hands with Trump, who was sitting cage-side with Dana White. 

But the action cost him ten thousand dollars. 

“That was the initial fine for jumping over the cage. They said - they told us beforehand - if you jump over (the fence), you’re getting a $10,000 fine," Du Plessis told Fight in Sight. He added that the instruction was repeated four different times before he walked out. 

“I was like, ‘I don’t know why you guys keep on hammering about me jumping over the fence, I’ve never done it before," Du Plessis continued. “It was literally the last instruction I got just before walking into the cage."

"After the fight, I looked to the side and Trump stood up and gave me an ovation. I was like, ‘This is too cool of a moment for me to let by,’ and well, I jumped over the fence and greeted Trump... This was the President of the United States, I wasn't not gonna greet him, this is amazing.”

Du Plessis confirmed that the UFC collected on the fine.

Du Plessis is undefeated in the UFC with a current win streak of six fights. With the win over Whitter at UFC 290, the South African from Pretoria cemented his position as the No.1 contender in the middleweight division. He will challenge Sean Strickland for the belt at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. The two had a vicious altercation at UFC 296, after which Strickland was shown out of the arena.

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