Dricus Du Plessis might have proved who the ‘real African’ is and won against Israel Adesanya, but a new rivalry is now brewing. Alex Pereira had called out the middleweight champ for a fight after UFC 305. Pereira wants to come back to the middleweight category and fight one more time for the belt. Now ‘Stillknocks’ has a sharp retort for Pereira’s latest antics.

He recently wrote on X, “@AlexPereiraUFC you and your boyfriend @SStricklandMMA can have a domestic dispute on who gets slept first.” Surprisingly Pereira had beat Adesanya as well when he won the middleweight belt and then after Adesanya lost in 2024, ‘Poatan’ took the chance. He wrote an Instagram post addressing Du Plessis and said, “I’m focused on my next fight and I’m going prepared but you never know what can happen, 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.”

Pereira is scheduled to defend his light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307. On the other hand, Du Plessis will likely defend his middleweight title against Sean Strickland next. So what might follow?

Magomed Ankalaev has been waiting for a long time for his chance to step inside the octagon against the Brazilian. However, Pereira decided to call out Du Plessis. Ankalaev has been on a roll in the light-heavy division and his only loss was against Paul Craig in 2018. Even after this the light heavyweight fight against ‘Poatan’ has eluded him. 

Meanwhile, Sean Strickland said that he would like to have a bout with Dricus Du Plessis who took his belt after winning over Adesanya.  Strickland showed his desire through X and said that he would like a second shot at DDP. He wrote, “Time for war Dutch man……” Dana White had surprisingly announced that the winner of Adesanya vs Du Plessis would be facing Strickland in their next bout. However, Pereira suggested that he would drop down to middleweight and be a contender as well.

Pereira had said in a YouTube video on his channel that Ankalaev had refused to fight him, and he was ready otherwise. This infuriated the Russian and he retaliated on social media. Ankalaev fired back by stating, “@AlexPereiraUFC you are a liar. You said I turned (fight) down against you. @danawhite @Mickmaynard2 never offer me a fight against you. I’m gonna make you eat your word after I handle my business.”

 On the other hand, Pereira wants to face DDP in the middleweight but a rematch of Strickland-Du Plessis still appears more plausible. Their first fight at UFC 297 was called for Du Plessis by a split decision. However White had said that he would have picked Strickland as the winner. Du Plessis has a 10-fight winning streak right now and spoke about a possible Strickland fight in the post-fight presser at UFC 305. he said, “If Strickland is the next fight – the people want to see that fight. It’s the fight that people want to see. It’s the fight that people think is the next best guy.”

So who will DDP fight next? tell us your thoughts in the comments below.