Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira seems serious about coming for Dricus du Plessis.
Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira had earlier planned to move up to heavyweight. However, he has changed his mind after DDP defeated Isreal Adesanya to retain the belt at UFC 306. The fighter was once the middleweight champion but lost his title after battling Adesanya.
“Poatan” moved up the division shortly after this and didn’t get a chance at a rematch, but he’s pretty eager to get it now. The fighter hinted at cutting to middleweight, where he can face Dricus du Plessis after DDP defeated Izzy to retain his belt. Pereira seems pretty serious about it as he released another post on social media.
“I’m focused on my next fight and I’m going prepared but you never know what can happen,” Pereira wrote on social media Monday night. “So regardless of the result. I want to go down one more time to the middleweight and go for the belt. Hey Dricus, bring your will to fight me so you can prove that you are better than me. With your public statement it is easy to make this happen. Chama”
Du Plessis also seems eager for this fight and has mentioned entertaining the thought of moving up to light heavyweight to battle Pereira. Although Pereira wants this super fight to be in the middleweight division, DDP wants Pereira at his best in the light heavyweight.
“I honestly don’t think Alex Pereira should drop down to 185.” Du Plessis said at the UFC 305 post-fight press conference. “If he wants to, great, perfect. But then we’re going to hear the excuses. I saw Izzy stiff that man in the first round. I felt Izzy’s punching power tonight. Izzy has great timing, he’s fast, he’s long and he has great combinations, but I felt the power.
“If Izzy stiffens you like that, you do not want to be in there with me, especially not when you’ve got to come in there with the excuses. ‘Oh, I cut too much weight.’ That’s going to happen. Everybody’s going to say it.”
“So stay at 205. Fight your fight against the #8 ranked guy. Fight your fight there and enjoy it.”
“If [Sean] Strickland is the next fight, the people wanna see that fight… So, let me handle my business. You handle your business. You don’t have to cut the weight, so you have some sort of excuse. I’ll come up after the Strickland fight. I’ll come up to 205, and we’ll sort it out there,” Du Plessis said of a potential fight with Pereira.”
Du Plessis has had a three-fight winning streak in his last middleweight bout and is set to have a rematch with Sean Strickland.
