Dricus Du Plessis wants to move up to the Light Heavyweight division after a championship stint in Middleweight.
The UFC middleweight division has seen a great number of warriors enter the octagon. One has stood out and took the league by storm. As Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya took the middleweight title in 2019, and kept it for 5 successful title defenses. Since his first title loss to Alex “Poatan” Pereira, the UFC has now seen a fourth middleweight champion change in less than 2 years.
Since UFC 297 in Toronto Canada, a new middleweight champion was crowned. After a full 5 rounds, a bloodshed battle between Dricus “Stillknocks” Du Plessis and former middleweight champion Sean “Tarzan” Strickland ended with a split decision in favor of Du Plessis. As Du Plessis steps into the spotlight as the man to beat, there are many options for what’s next. A rematch with Strickland, a new contender, or the near future possibility of Du Plessis moving up a weight class.
As of lately, there have been conversations of champions wanting to go that next step and obtain 2 belts. Such as “Suga” Sean O’Malley fighting Ilia “El Matador” Topuria or Islam Makhachev facing Leon “Rocky” Edwards. Du Plessis now takes center stage as he awaits his next fight announcement, and talks about his future with the UFC.
Du Plessis recently was on a podcast with Cameron Saaiman. Where the 2 talked about nerves leading up to a fight, technical fighting, and what Du Plessis believes the future holds for him. As Du Plessis recently became the new champion of the middleweight division, this comes with a lot of opportunity. Du Plessis has yet to be booked for his next fight, which could be a great number of opponents. One option however, is moving up a weight class to the light heavyweight division after completing a small winning streak in middleweight. One fighter interests him the most, a potential matchup against Alex Pereira.
Dricus Du Plessis Talks About What’s Next for Him
With the different talks of who his next opponent could be, Du Plessis adds his thoughts on possibly joining the next weight class division of 205. He also gives his insight on the UFC 300 main event between Alex Pereira and Jamahal “Sweet Dreams” Hill.
“Everybody wants to be a double champ, I understand that.” He continued to add, “But, I am willing to say… If Robert Whittaker just keeps on beating everybody, who am I going to fight?”
On Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker, who has only lost to former champion Adesanya and current champion Du Plessis.
Du Plessis adds his comments about the UFC 300 main event fight with Pereira and Hill. Stating, “That’s a good fight. You have this – both strikers – but you have one guy who’s such a clinical striker then you have this guy that he just fires and he throws bombs. Listen, if Jamahal Hill knocks out Alex Pereira, I will not be surprised.” Du Plessis lastly says about Pereira, “We’ve seen Alex Pereira get hurt a lot.”
Du Plessis seems to understand his position as the new middleweight champ. He wants to try to challenge himself at middleweight until it seems it gets repetitive. If the opportunity presents itself, he would like to move up to the 205 weight class.
Quotes taken from LowKickMMA
Would you like to see a light heavyweight matchup between Du Plessis and Pereira in the future? Let us know in the comments!
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