Dricus Du Plessis is a 3-to-1 UNDERDOG?! Rob Hersov & Kevin Ferguson React to UFC Odds!

I'm here with Kevin Ferguson. Kevin, we're neighbors. We both live in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.

Yeah, we're—

what's your local?

My local's Jake's.

Good man. What's your favorite drink?

My favorite drink's lager, but I'm not known to go without a double rum and And, uh, Coke and a tequila.

Good man. Rum and tequila.

Yeah.

Combined. What? In one glass.

One?

No, no, no.

No, I'm not, I'm not that sophisticated.

Okay. But what are we excited about this weekend? Excited about the rugby? Yeah. Springboks, Australia.

The odds, the, uh, the bookmakers have it 18.5. South Africa are supposed to win by 19 or more.

19 to 1.

No, no. That they're supposed to win with a handicap of 19 points or more. So all this talk about—

So the Fox are gonna win by 19 points. No, see, and the Breakers have it.

I think Australia will cover themselves in a bit of glory and win by, lose by 15 or 13 or 14.

Okay, so you think it's 13 to 18 is the spread.

Yeah.

But I'm not a big gambler.

Yeah.

I could become one.

Apparently I am.

And if I were to bet on the rugby, and I think it's gonna be a lot closer.

Yeah, than that.

Springboks, I think, will win by 8 to 10, let's say. How do I bet on that? I'm using this for those guys like me who aren't—

Okay, so in simple terms, the Springboks are favored by 18. So at the beginning of the game, they're minus 18.5 points on the board. Okay. Um, Australia are plus 18.5 on the board. So if you think that the game's going to be Not a blowout and tight, you take Australia. I've taken Australia and I don't like Australia. I mean, I thought it was an average British Irish Lions team they played and Australia are shit.

So Kevin, you know me.

Yeah.

And I think most of the audience probably know me. I'm the Drikus of political podcasting. I have a maverick style. I'm a go forward. I'm a trash talker. And that's me. Who are you, Kevin? Who are you? Who's Kevin?

But I've been betting for years.

Betting.

My first bet was when I was—

So you're a gambler?

Yeah, of course.

But I thought you had some great businesses too.

I do have some good businesses. Tell us. SA Rugby, SA Cricket, Women at Home, Food and Home, Car Getaway.

Magazines?

They're more digital assets now because online we've transitioned.

So it's content.

Yeah. And produce content. Okay. So, but when I was young, uh, I was—

Yeah, you're younger than me. He's younger than me.

Barely, barely. So when I was younger, uh, in Canada, I grew up, I had a sports scholarship for basketball and rugby. So I played sports and then I had a mathematical mind that made me study the game and the probabilities of outcomes. That's all gambling is.

Exactly. So you founded this media content business.

Yeah.

And you generate articles and contextual information and you interview people, the normal stuff. Yeah, yeah. But where does the gambling come in? Is that just a personal thing or a business thing?

But you know, I had an Irish parents and my dad liked to drink and he liked to gamble. Yeah. And I picked up on the one.

That's a fine fucking thing. That is a very sure, very sure fucking. Paddy. He's a good man. I'm honorary Irish when it comes to playing golf. So I've got some friends in Ireland.

Don't take the mulligan then.

No, they play hard on the rules. There's no mulligans, no nonsense. Okay. And Dermot Desmond, who owns Celtic Football Club, is a great friend of mine.

Okay.

And now and again, he invites me to come and play with the Irish against the English.

Lucky.

That's when I lived over there.

Well, there's no love lost between the Irish and the English.

I know. Exactly. And so you have a gaming and gambling business?

Well, I run funds and I, last week my social media on betting reached half a million. And what does that mean? It meant that half a million people watched it and viewed it.

And you comment on, you give tips and discuss games.

I predicted that Australia would beat the Dominican Republic. Simply on the— in the final game away. In the final game. Okay. Yeah. Not in the first two games. I thought they'd win 3-nothing, but then I got to the third game and we said, their bags are packed. They're ready to go home.

Yeah.

Uh, it's tough to get into involved in a game where the collisions aren't the same when you're looking to preserve your season.

Other than the rugby, there's something even bigger, bigger this weekend. And that is Drikus, Drikus du Plessis, Still Knox.

Still Knox.

Yeah.

You should want me to go on to Dormannach. It's a better sweep.

Puts you out anyway. So Drikus is fighting this weekend against Chimaev.

Who has a reputation of being not going long, not going long distance. All his fights— He's a sprinter. He's a sprinter.

Okay.

I believe that if Drikus can take him into the third round, it'll exhaust the Whatever Hamza has.

What's the weight of a middleweight? 185.

I think it's 185 pounds. Yeah.

Okay. So that's 88, 86 kilos.

Yeah.

That's me. Well, how much do you weigh? Probably the same.

No, 91.

Okay.

Tubby.

Tubby, I'm at 87, 88. Fat bastard. And so they're at around the same weight. Yeah. Is Drikus taller, shorter?

Are they about— I believe that Drikus is taller. Okay. But not by much.

I mean, I've met Cricketer twice. What's he like? He is such fun. He's such a good guy. I've met him 3 times actually. I met him at Graeme Smith's South African T20 cricket.

Yeah.

The first time I met him, then I met him at the rugby where New Zealand, South Africa, New Zealand here at the DHL Stadium.

Okay.

And then I ran into him, or he ran into me at the airport 2 weeks ago.

Can I tell you a short story? I'm the last guy to pay Drikus when he was in South Africa. Pay what? Pay him his salary. The UFC was in such trouble they couldn't even pay him.

So this is before UFC?

No, he was fighting for UFC. They didn't pay him his money. And I got a phone call just before Christmas, just after Christmas, before Christmas, and we were involved. Oh yeah, no, this is about 4 years ago. And they were saying, I said, you got to pay the fucking I mean, stop it. He's the biggest attraction you have. Pay him. And so I put up the 150,000 to pay him. Rand. Yeah. Wasn't dollars.

Okay.

Good man.

Okay.

Well, good. Well, you just did a good thing. Well, just think about how small he was getting paid, how little he was getting paid for the talent that he was in the EFC.

You know?

EFC. EFC. Ah, before the UFC.

So my wife and I went to an EFC fight in in the Grand West. And I can't remember the guy's name. He was featherweight or welterweight or something. He's fighting a guy called Zulu. His nickname was Zulu. And this guy had been my trainer for a few weeks.

You can see him zip into the stadium. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on.

And my wife was, we were in the front row. My wife was saying, kill the Zulu, kill the Zulu. You can't say that. That's not the thing to say. She said, but that's his name. I said, I know, but no.

So, women are more bloodthirsty than men.

She's a Kiwi, she got bloodthirsty. So, the first time I met him was at the cricket.

Yeah.

And I got introduced by Graham Smith. Somebody said, Rob, come and meet Drakus. So I was like, I want to meet Drakus. So Drakus, I said, my son Finn, he's now 10 years old, 8 then. I said, he's going to be over the moon. He won't believe I've met you.

Yeah.

So can we get like a picture of you doing a fake punch?

Yeah.

And he said, no problem. And I put the camera on and as I put the camera on, I turned towards him and he at the same time, and he actually whacked me in the jaw.

Did you go down?

I didn't go down.

But—

Yeah, I didn't go down.

But that's— But he would've killed me on the floor.

He would've grappled me to death. But on that note, grappling.

Yeah.

That's Chimaev's—

That's his strength.

That's his strength. He's a phenomenon. In fact, he's a grappling phenomenon.

Dirkus has said, anytime you get me to the floor, I'll give you $10,000.

In this fight?

In this fight.

Coming up?

Coming up.

So he gets him to the floor 4 times, $40,000. Gets up, goes down again, another $40,000.

So, I think it's a bit of head games and a bit of, because Dyrickus, look, I don't underestimate that guy, you know. You don't underestimate any South African. I mean, how many battles?

Hey, but you're honorary South African, aren't you?

Yeah, I've been here 26 years.

Not underestimate you.

Yeah, so I mean, when you look at the battles we fought in the years, look at the cricket this year, you look at the '95 World Cup, we were never supposed to win that. Yeah, we're not supposed to, we're always punching above our weight.

So he and Chimaev, yeah, both go-forward fighters. Yeah, so they're going to go at each other. They are. Drikus might play pace yourself, get into the third or fourth round, wear him down. He has to. He has to.

Yeah, he has to. I mean, when you look at this, Dricus is 3-to-1 underdog. I've never said again, 3-to-1 underdog.

Why? That's ridiculous, he's a champion.

But the other guy is 1.35, he's 3. I've never seen— why give that?

Why not give 2-to-1 odds?

Such is it, such is the— such is the euphoria over, over, over Jamal Ikhmayev. Yeah, he's—

what do they know? What word, however, that uns wird näher?

I think what they're thinking about is that Chimaev is just a beast. And they think he's gonna, they're gonna, he's, the betting is that he's gonna take him out in the first 2 rounds.

As a python. He's gonna strangle him.

Yeah, he's gonna python him to death. Python him to death.

First time you've heard this here. Python him to death. So you know what Drikus' nickname is?

Sturmox.

He's got another nickname.

What's his name?

Ricky Bobby.

And you know why? Is it after Ricky Bobby?

It's after Ricky Bobby because he likes car racing in Pretoria and he's got a car called, I think it's called Ricky Bobby. And I think he's got it in Chicago with him.

Really?

Yeah. He is charming, funny. You know, Drikkers has the weirdest, awkward, unusual style.

Unusual style.

People say that better. He's got his style and he drags his foot when he moves forward. Is that what it is?

But you know, you can say what you want. All I've seen from Dricus is he's taken on every comer, the toughest, 'cause he wants to fight the toughest. He doesn't want to mess around with the Osahaz and Randy and so-called people. He wants the toughest.

I mean, Strickland was tough. Adesanya, tough. I mean, Strickland twice.

Adesanya—

And two, you know, Strickland, I never liked him when he and— Dricus were trash talking, but at the end of the second fight, I had such respect for Strickland.

He's a cowboy, isn't he?

Strickland, I, I like to meet that guy. I rate him very highly.

Yeah, what a guy. I, you know, I can't say enough about Dricus, simply from the point that everybody thinks they know what they're going to do to Dricus until he gets in the ring. And it's like, he's so on a— you said he's so unorthodox. Yeah, he's so difficult.

He's, he's the Rob Hirst of it. Of VOC. No one knows what I'm going to say next. Footsack. Hey, what was it? Footsack ANC.

Dreykus is a beautiful fighter.

He's a beautiful fighter.

Beautiful fighter.

And you know, his positivity and his patriotism for South Africa, which is something I want to raise. He's one of the few people standing up and calling out the ANC for their destruction of this country.

When we live in a world of Muppets. Exactly. When we live in a world of Muppets, the Muppets are all They're Muppets, but when you get someone like Drikus, the whole country, you know, it's behind. I mean, there's nothing like after the fight, and the guy that films me when I do my podcast loves him, loves him. Yeah.

I think he's one of the greats. Character, inspiration, patriot, fighter. Come on, Drikus. If it's 3, I still can't believe 3 to 1 against.

I hope that he beats Lomachenko.

Me too.

And I wouldn't bet against it. If I have to bet, 3 to 1 is a good enough offer for me to bet. And even if I lose.

Yeah, I'm actually going to go in on that bet. 3 to 1. It's going to stay 3 to 1 to the fight?

Yeah, I might think so.

Or might soften a bit?

He might soften a bit. I mean, it's, uh, I saw Drikus today in an interview and he just looks so calm. So beautiful. He is such a lovely fighter. And sometimes he looks in trouble, but man, I've never seen a guy that can take a blow. It becomes it, a blow like him.

Tell me about his recovery at the rest period. You know, he goes in hurt and he comes back.

Have you seen anything like him?

Never seen anything like it, no.

No.

I haven't seen anything like it in any sport. When someone's just holding it together, they stay like that for, until they win or they lose. Drikus seems to come back.

But I thought, I've seen him thoroughly beat up everybody. Hasn't been close. He's well within his pace. He doesn't look in trouble. And even when he gets, even when he's taken a shot, I think, oof, nothing. That guy, that guy.

When he broke Strickland's nose, Strickland was so amazing about it and Drikus was so, it was a moment of brotherhood. And I just saw respect between those two. What a guy. Iobie destroys Chimaev bluntly, and I'll take that 3-to-1. So folks, Kevin Ferguson, what a treat. This is our first sports-related podcast, mine anyway. You've done lots of them, haven't you?

I'm blessed to be here.

You're blessed to— I'm blessed to be here. So, you know, I'm the guy that doesn't know that much. I'll teach you. And makes it up. I'm not a big gambler. I'm going to put some money down 3-to-1 on Dricus.

Absolutely.

I mean, how can you not? And I'm definitely getting up at, when is it gonna be like?

6 o'clock. Oh, 6, 6 AM.

Get up at 6.

My son will wake me up.

Yeah. Have your 4 eggs.

Yeah. And maybe 2.

And put on a box shirt. Well, you'll have it on from the day before, from the day before. Yeah. Get up.

Rob, thanks a hell of a lot.

Go Drikus.

Go Drikus.