To say that Dricus Du Plessis wiped the floor with Sean Strickland at UFC 312 would be an understatement. After all, the South African champ dominated almost the entirety of the five rounds, and even broke ‘Tarzan’s nose en route a well-deserved unanimous decision. And this time around, the verbose American had no excuses. Fans will remember ‘Tarzan’ claiming that it was an illegal headbutt from ‘DDP’ which partly caused him to lose their first fight at UFC 297.

“That only happened because that dirty f—ing Dutchman hit me with a headbutt. You know how it is? Like how much blood you got running through your eyes? It would have been an easy fight if it wasn’t for that,” Strickland had claimed at the UFC 312 pre-fight presser.

This time around, however, the former champ was far more gracious in defeat. But Du Plessis, who apparently hasn’t forgotten Strickland’s excuse for the first fight, took to social media to mock ‘Tarzan’ in a show of pure pettiness. “Head butt king of the world,” the current 185lbs gold standard wrote as caption with a picture of him chugging beer on Instagram. This is perfectly in character for the South African, who is known for his trolling abilities and fantastic sense of humor.

This, after all, is the same guy, who has made both Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland cry with his words at press conferences prior to their fight. And it seems he has been nursing a grouse over ‘Tarzan’s headbutt claims in their first, UFC 297 fight, which was razor-close. But with Strickland taken care of, ‘DDP’ now has his eyes set on a much loftier goal.

Why Dricus Du Plessis’ potential upcoming fight with Khamzat Chimaev may be legacy-defining?

After defending his middleweight belt for the second time, Dricus Du Plessis now has two goals– beat up Khamzat Chimaev and become the middleweight GOAT– both of which are pretty achievable for the South African.

“Khamzat is next. I want to make sure that this belt—the middleweight title—there’s no question that I’m the GOAT of the middleweight division. I’m not rushing that. My next fight is not Alex Pereira. No, no, no. I want that fight against Khamzat next. I think he deserves a hiding,” ‘DDP’ told reporters at the UFC 312 post-fight presser.

Indeed, a win over Chimaev would put ‘DDP’ in the middleweight GOAT conversation. While the South African may not have the sixteen consecutive wins Anderson Silva had, there is no doubt his past few wins have come against a much better quality of opponent than ‘The Spider’ faced.

In fact, if the champ defeats Chimaev, then gets wins over young and hungry lions like Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho, he may well find himself as many people’s pick for the middleweight GOAT. But the road to GOAT-dom for Du Plessis passes through ‘Borz’. This is just another reason for fans to be excited about a potential Du Plessis-Chimaev title clash. What do you think about Dricus Du Plessis trolling Sean Strickland with his Instagram post?