On Saturday, Dricus Du Plessis successfully defended his middleweight title for the second time when he dominated Sean Strickland in their rematch at UFC 312.
Ahead of their second clash in the cage, Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland ramped up their rivalry by promising a war this time around after their first clash at UFC 297 largely disappointed.
The South African champion kept his promise as he dominated Strickland for the majority of their five-round main event, breaking his nose in the fourth round.
Following the fight, Du Plessis seemingly agreed to fight light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira, who was in Strickland’s corner.
Dana White states he will discuss Du Plessis’ next fight on Tuesday
Despite that, Pereira is set to defend his title against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, meaning a fight against Du Plessis is a long shot at the moment.
With that, ahead of his rematch against Strickland, Du Plessis admitted that he would’ve ‘100%’ preferred to fight Khamzat Chimaev following ‘Borz’s’ emphatic win over Robert Whittaker.
Although the middleweight champion seemingly verbally agreed to fight Pereira, UFC boss Dana White has hinted that they will instead make the much-anticipated fight between ‘Stillknocks’ and the Chechen.
“Yeah (Du Plessis vs Chimaev is a pretty big fight), we’ll talk about it on Tuesday though,” White admitted in the post-fight press conference.
Dricus Du Plessis reveals his gameplan and preferred location against Chimaev
With Du Plessis likely to defend his title against the undefeated Chimaev next, he has revealed what his game plan will be heading into that fight.
The champion has previously explained how fighters are too worried about engaging in wrestling with Chimaev, however, he is willing to attempt to out-wrestle the dominant grappler.
“Counter the jab, oh no, that was the gameplan for Strickland, let me just think of something. The blitz, no, (that was) Rob. Yeah, I’ll just out-wrestle him, that’s the game plan,” he said in his post-fight press conference.
The promotion has been hinting at hosting an event in Africa for several years now and now seems to be the perfect time with ‘Stillknocks’ continuing to grow in stardom.
Du Plessis has admitted that he would be willing to fight on a Fight Night event in South Africa instead of defending his title on a big PPV card as he wants to finally take the UFC to the continent.
“I want to fight in South Africa and Africa really bad, it’s as much of a dream of mine as becoming and retaining the world title.
“The Khamzat fight, as big as it’s gonna be, obviously International Fight Week would be amazing but I promise you, what is International Fight Week if I can do this in Africa? I don’t even care, I will take a Fight Night in South Africa rather than International Fight Week,” he stated.
However, ‘Stillknocks’ surprisingly admitted that instead of fighting Chimaev in South Africa, he would prefer to fight him in Saudi Arabia, to ‘conquer’ another area.
“In Saudi, I’ll take him on a PPV in Saudi, for sure, 100%. In fact, I would prefer that. To beat him and conquer another place, yeah, perfect.”