Afrigather South Africa’s MMA star Dricus du Plessis beat Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 and now has quite a lot of choices forward of him.
Du Plessis pressured Adesanya to faucet within the fourth spherical of their middleweight battle in Perth in August this 12 months.
Submit-fight, the 30-year-old Pretoria-born fighter he’s been linked to quite a lot of potential title challengers, together with the winner of the UFC 308 bout between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev, a rematch towards Sean Strickland, and even a superfight with gentle heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Rematch
Dricus du Plessis’s coach Morne Visser informed Submission Radio they’re anticipating a rematch – however it’s really one with Whittaker, who Du Plessis defeated at UFC 290.
Strickland has been resolute in claiming he deserves one other crack at du Plessis after dropping the title to him by way of a slender cut up determination of their first assembly, however Visser thinks Strickland remains to be one win away.
“I had a dialog really yesterday with Dricus,” Visser mentioned, based on MMA Combating.
“I mentioned to him, ‘There’s just one factor for sure at this stage, just one factor, and that’s that we’ve obtained to be able to battle in Sydney in February.’ My opinion is Sean’s overselling it. He’s simply had one win after Dricus, that was towards [Paulo] Costa. Whittaker had two, and I believe he’s going to go for quantity three now.
“So, my sincere opinion is that subsequent for us in line will probably be Whittaker in Sydney in February. I believe he’s going to beat Khamzat, and I actually assume that they’re going to offer him the shot.”
Chimaev is undefeated in 13 professional bouts, although his purpose of turning into a champion at middleweight and welterweight has been stifled by grueling stretches of inactivity.
When he steps into the cage to battle Whittaker on 26 October, it will likely be simply his fourth battle since 2020.
Compelling bout
One different match-up risk Visser mentioned was one other battle with Adesanya.
The loss to Du Plessis put Adesanya on the primary dropping streak of his MMA profession and he’s now misplaced three of his previous 4 fights, however Adesanya’s efficiency towards Du Plessis, the depth of their rivalry, and Adesanya’s Nigerian roots might nonetheless make for a compelling championship bout.
As for Pereira, Visser claims a bout with the Brazilian knockout artist was mentioned on the night of UFC 305 after du Plessis defeated Adesanya.
Nonetheless, they’re extra concerned about shifting as much as problem Pereira for the sunshine heavyweight title than seeing him drop again right down to 185 kilos to problem Du Plessis.
