Throwback: When UFC champ Dricus du Plessis single-handedly defeated the entire Gracie Barra BJJ team in a grappling match

Dricus du Plessis emerged victorious from his UFC 297 title fight against Sean Strickland and walked away with the middleweight title. But the newly crowned champion’s performance against Strickland wasn't as dominant as his showing in a past submission grappling contest.

A video of du Plessis submitting multiple members of the Gracie Barra team has gone viral on the internet. Founded by Carlos Gracie Jr, Gracie Barra is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu team and academy.

The academy has the record for having the highest number of affiliated schools around the world, and the the team is considered one of the best in the discipline.

At the 2021 Submission Kings Quintet, Dricus du Plessis spearheaded his gym, Team CIT MMA, against the Johannesburg branch of Gracie Barra Academy. At the time, ‘Stillknocks’ was coming off a performance bonus-winning TKO victory over Trevin Giles in the UFC.

Impressively, he single-handedly dominated the five-member Gracie Barra team en route to a thumping victory.

Watch the grappling contest below (01:06:20):

During his recent appearance on the OverDogs Podcast, the South African fighter shed light on his efforts at the event:

“That was actually crazy. My MMA team started getting a lot of recognition for being the number one team in our country. There was this team Quintenet - Basically, it has to be five guys in a team. So we started and I’m not in shape. I was in the middle of celebrating a fight and here we go! We start grappling and the first guy comes in, I subbed five of them, and I subbed the whole team! Yeah man, took out that whole team. That was crazy.”

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Why did Dricus du Plessis grapple with five opponents in the same contest?

Quintet is a submission grappling contest that follows a 5-on-5, winner-stays-on format. Each team has five members and the contest begins with two fighters, one from each team.

The winner fights the next member of the team. If the bout ends in a draw, both members have to step back and the next fighters from both teams enter the contest.

The team loses if all five of its members lose to the rival team’s fighters. In an event where the last bout - between the fifth fighters of both teams - ends in a draw, the winning team is declared based on factors like the number of penalties and aggression.

Dricus du Plessis competed against Gracie Barra Illovo in this format. He was the first member of his team to step on the mat to fight Gracie Barra’s first representative. He went on to submit all the members and dismantled the entire team, leading Team CIT to victory.