Dricus du Plessis eyes light heavyweight title fight after UFC 297 championship siege: ‘I’ve wiped out the division’
Ahead of his premier championship challenge under the banner of the promotion at the turn of the year at UFC 297, surging middleweight contender, Dricus du Plessis has sights already set on taking light heavyweight gold from Brazilian favorite, Alex Pereira – claiming he would have already cleared out the middleweight division.
du Plessis, the current number two ranked middleweight contender, earned his incoming title siege against the incumbent Sean Strickland with a stunning second round knockout win over former champion, Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July in the pair’s title-eliminator.
In the midst of a hugely-impressive run of six consecutive victories since landing in the Octagon three years ago, South African contender, du Plessis landed a TKO win over recent PFL MMA debutante, Derek Brunson earlier this year, which followed a third round rear-naked choke submission win over former welterweight title challenger, Darren Till a year ago.
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And sharing his thoughts on his title challenge against Strickland, du Plessis confirmed plans to fight for light heavyweight gold – should he knock back a future challenge from arch-foe, Israel Adesanya.
“That all depends how the division opens up,” Dricus du Plessis told Submission Radio. “I would still love to fight Israel Adesanya 100 percent it would be my first choice as a defense. It would be great but I’m assuming Khamzat (Chimaev) is the guy they’re gonna try and push. So that would be cool. I do want to defend my belt before – obviously, it’s all gonna come down to who I beat and how good I make it look.”
“If I go out there and I absolutely destory Khamzat, what’s there really left?” Dricus du Plessis explained. “If I go out there and I beat Israel Adesanya after becoming champion, what is there really – it’s wiped out, the whole division. The two guys who wiped out the division were Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, and beating those two guys doesn’t really leave any room left.”
