Dricus du Plessis took a wide unanimous decision over Kamaru Usman in the main event at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on Saturday, winning on scorecards of 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46.

The result moved du Plessis to 24-3 and dropped Usman to 21-5.

A one-sided five rounds

The scorecards describe the fight accurately, which is not always true of a unanimous decision. One judge gave Usman no rounds at all; the other two gave him one apiece.

Du Plessis, ranked second at middleweight, controlled the striking exchanges throughout. Usman, who built his career as a welterweight champion and has moved up in weight, could not find the range or the leverage to change the pattern, and his attempts to make it a grappling contest did not alter the trajectory of the fight.

There is a straightforward physical explanation. Usman spent years as one of the best fighters in the world at 170 pounds, and middleweight is 185. Fighters who move up rarely bring their old advantages with them, and the ones they lose first are the ones that matter most against a naturally larger opponent: the ability to hurt him, and the ability to move him.

What du Plessis wants

He was not subtle about it. "I'm back in the winner's circle, baby," du Plessis told the crowd. "Let's get my belt back."

The belt in question belongs to Sean Strickland, and a third fight between them is what du Plessis is asking for. He said a performance like Saturday's "would give me a title shot."

Whether the UFC agrees is a separate question. Trilogies get made when the first two fights were close or contentious, and matchmaking at the top of a division follows the promotion's sense of what sells as much as the rankings.

Usman at a crossroads

Usman said he needed to go back and reassess, which is the sort of thing fighters say when the alternative is answering a question they do not yet want to answer.

He is among the most accomplished welterweights the sport has produced, with a title reign that put him in the conversation about the best of his era. That record is not diminished by Saturday. But he was outclassed for five rounds by a naturally bigger man, and the honest read is that a return to the weight class where he was dominant, or a decision about how much longer to continue, is the more useful path than another middleweight assignment.

Both fighters were given $100,000 Fight of the Night bonuses.