UFC 305 fight of Dricus Du Plessis on the way to the middleweight title was not without controversy. His majority decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 297 made some people, including the promoter Dana White, believe Strickland won the fight. However, following a bout against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 any questions over du Plessis’s right to challenge for the title were well and truly answered. Still, Adesanya was sharp, but the pressure from du Plessis was overwhelming, and thus the current middleweight champion is beyond doubt du Plessis.
Du Plessis Takes on Another Challenge
A former kickboxer who competed as a welterweight and with the ORLY fighting out of Curitiba, Brazil, 205-pound Alex Pereira. He has chosen to face the lightweight champion Alex Pereria next, after realizing a string of good performances. From 170 pounds to 205 pounds, du Plessis is stepping up to meet Pereira as a contender for the title of the doubles champion. On the surface, it might appear as a very dangerous decision to take to decide on the move up in weight class, but hear out the UFC legend, Michael Bisping.
Told recently in the interview, Bisping agreed that while the idea about fighters possibly seeking champ-champ status may have been somewhat overstated, it made a lot of literal sense for du Plessis to fight Pereira at the 205-pound division when the South African would face him.
Michael Bisping: No big risk for du Plessis
The decision to fight with Pereira was still a tactics decision for du Plessis taking the match in 205 pounds not defending the title in 185 pounds. I asked Bisping who has watched everything in the Octagon about what du Plessis is not doing in this fight. He has claimed that though he was defeated by Pereira at 205 pounds; he still possess the middleweight belt. The worst is a loss on his record, yet he and he alone is a two time middleweight champion.
“Dricus du Plessis has ambitions of achieving the status of a champion on two levels at once, and as you know, this man is a fighter,” Bisping said. “He wants the biggest possible fights, he’ll take a fight against Pereira, but he does not want to be at 185, he already wants to go to 205 and become a double champion, it is crazy but it is also very smart.”
The logic is clear: if du Plessis wins, he assumes the champion of the two divisions and goes down in the records. That is, even if he loses the fight, he will still be having his middle belt and thus has a legacy to drop behind. It is a bluffing that costs very little with little to lose and that has the potential for very high gain.
The Strickland Debate: Who should receive the next crack at the title?
While du Plessis gets set for the biggest fight of his career with Pereira another war has started in the middleweight division concerning the next contender for the title. As for the next fight, Dana White offered the fight with Sean Strickland to GSP, but du Plessis does not agree.
