If Dricus Du Plessis can add Khamzat Chimaev’s identify to his resume, he’s anticipating large issues.
Middleweight champion Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) was angling to run issues again with Sean Strickland for his subsequent title protection, however after Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) ran by means of Robert Whittaker for a first-round submission this previous Saturday at UFC 308, he’s now all in favour of undefeated “Borz.”
Along with his previous three wins coming over Whittaker, Strickland and Israel Adesanya, Du Plessis thinks handing Chimaev his first profession loss ought to set him up for a shot on the mild heavyweight title – ideally in his house nation of South Africa.
“If I beat Khamzat Chimaev – I beat Robert Whittaker, then I beat Sean Strickland, then I beat Israel Adesanya, then I beat Khamzat Chimaev, that warrants a double title combat,” Du Plessis informed ESPN. “And I believe that may simply be it. I’ve a imaginative and prescient, and I can’t image one thing extra good than that.
“However to be utterly sincere, I don’t care who it’s. South Africa would go loopy regardless of who I combat. … On the finish of the day, there’s a aim that must be reached, and that’s preventing in my house nation and getting that second belt. To do these on the identical evening, that might be fairly candy.”
Du Plessis clarifies he’ll combat whoever the UFC presents, however after Chimaev’s spectacular end of Whittaker, the champion says that’s who the followers are clamouring for him to combat.
“The conversations had been extra about me preventing Strickland,” Du Plessis stated. “However there was a really large motive no contracts have been signed, and I’m saying this as an opinion: I agreed – I stated I’ll combat Strickland, good, and that’s the combat the followers need.
“However when you go on what the followers need proper now, it’s positively not the Strickland combat. For those who ask what I would like, I wish to combat the perfect man. I wish to combat the man the followers need me to combat, and that 100% is Khamzat. If they provide me the Strickland combat, nice, I’ll combat Strickland in February, March or at any time when, after which combat Khamzat.”
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