Dricus du Plessis awaits his first fight since losing his UFC title and if he has any say, it won’t be against Brendan Allen.
Allen is on the rise in the middleweight ranks, having scored back-to-back victories over Reinier de Ridder and one-time title challenger Marvin Vettori. Following his upset win over de Ridder at UFC Vancouver in October, Allen mentioned possibly fighting du Plessis
if their schedules lined up.It’s not an option that makes sense to du Plessis right now.
“Listen, you win two
fights in a row, don’t come calling out former champions,” du Plessis told Fight Forecast. “Especially a guy that was on a—I mean, I would love to smash his face in. I would absolutely love it. He’s such an idiot. I would love it. But to be honest with you, as a champion, you pick guys, but I only pick the best guy. I always want to fight the best next guy.”
Du Plessis has only faced the elite at 185 pounds over the past few years, defeating former champions Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker, and Sean Strickland (twice) as he established himself as one of the best middleweights of this generation. However, he lost his title in lopsided fashion to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 this past August.
Beyond his recent wins, Allen’s credentials include nine wins in his past 11 fights as well as a handful of post-fight bonus checks. Allen is currently No. 5 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings at 185 pounds, with du Plessis three spots ahead at No. 2. He accused du Plessis of suddenly not wanting to fight him now that he’s back on the winning track.
“Never when I’m up,” Allen said in Vancouver about du Plessis taking shots at him. “If that’s what it is, if it fits the timeline because I don’t know when he wants to return. But for now I’m just ready to get home to my family, take some time to mentally recoup.”
If it’s Allen standing in the way of du Plessis earning another shot at gold, then “DDP” is happy to face him, but at the moment he doesn’t view Allen as being worth his time.
“For me, where I’m at, I don’t want a hype fight,” du Plessis said. “I don’t want money fight. I want the fight that’s going to get me to the title the quickest, that’s what I want. If that’s what the UFC wants, sure. But does that really make sense? Two-fight win streak, there’s a lot of guys, but like I said, I don’t care. Give me anybody. As long as it gets me back to my belt, that’s the only thing I’m concerned about is getting back to my title.”
