Dricus du Plessis shared the octagon with Khamzat Chimaev for 25 minutes two months ago, and he was dominated by the now UFC middleweight champion. But despite that experience, du Plessis believes Chimaev should
stay in his own division and not pursue a move up to fight Alex Pereira.
Du Plessis lost the middleweight title to Chimaev in the main event of UFC 319 via lopsided unanimous decision. While Chimaev’s first title defense is still a mystery, the new 185-pound champion has been saying he wants to move up to 205 to challenge Pereira for the light heavyweight title — which began following Pereira’s 80-second stoppage win over Magomed Ankalaev earlier this month at UFC 320.
In a recent interview, du Plessis was asked about that potential matchup, and he says it will be a horrible night at the office for his most recent opponent.
“I mean, he’s always had crazy callouts,” du Plessis told Fight Forecast. “Khamzat, there’s no way he beats Pereira, in my opinion.”
After losing the light heavyweight title to Ankalaev at UFC 313 in March, the UFC opted to give Pereira an immediate rematch and it couldn’t have gone better for “Poatan,” as he hurt Ankalaev early before delivering the first finish via strikes in Ankalaev’s career. Since then, Pereira has had his sights set on a heavyweight fight with another man who captured two titles in two separate divisions in Jon Jones, eyeing the UFC White House event as the preferred timeline.
Pereira likely being able to make the move to heavyweight so easily is one of the biggest factors as to why du Plessis could see the future hall of famer giving Chimaev problems.
“I think Pereira, right now, is one of the greatest to ever do this sport, or any combat sport for that matter,” du Plessis explained. “Yeah, he’s a big guy. Even right now at light heavyweight, he looked so big against Ankalaev, it was crazy.
“So, yeah, I think that’s all hype. I don’t think there’s any realistic chance of that ever happening.”
