Everybody wants to fight Dricus Du Plessis! UFC 312 witnessed his dominant victory over Sean Strickland, breaking the American’s nose in the process. But since it was a unanimous decision win, it seems there are fighters who believe they can easily dispose of DDP in a fight. Take Islam Makhachev, for instance. In January, he stated, “Just give me the chance, that’s it. I will fight with [Dricus] du Plessis. If they give me the chance, I will fight with him also.”

Now, there is yet another UFC champion who thinks he could defeat Du Plessis. It is the welterweight champion, Belal Muhammad. His comment came in after DDP’s win over Strickland. What did he say?

Well, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he took to X and wrote, “I can be double champ pretty easily.”

But hey, let us not forget that Muhammad, who won the 170-pound title last year, has a grand total of zero title defenses. The UFC will almost definitely not let him move up at the moment. But it seems ‘Bully B’ may have identified a weakness in ‘DDP’s game, which makes him think he could beat the South African.

Du Plessis’ fighting style, as Sean Strickland put it, was like a “r—– on a short bus” but the South African just finds a way to win. But there are other reasons why neither Makhachev nor Muhammad will probably get to fight Du Plessis for the middleweight title next.

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira ran into Dricus Du Plessis backstage after the Strickland fight. And according to ‘Poatan’, ‘DDP’ has agreed to fight him, and do it at light heavyweight, which would be a massive fight. However, even that fight seems unlikely since Khamzat Chimaev is next in line for a middleweight title shot, as confirmed by Dana White.

“I can be double champ pretty easily,” ‘Bully B’ wrote with his characteristic.

Top Comment by Kravmaga

Yes he can be by going down in weight and fighting his muslim training partner ….DDP is a different beast...more

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Instead, Pereira is set to take on Magomed Ankalaev at their UFC 313 clash next month. And Muhammad himself is set to fight undefeated boogeyman, Shavkat Rakhmonov, probably by mid-2025. The duo were originally set to fight at UFC 310 last year, but Muhammad pulled out due to a bone infection.

In short, everybody has their hands full. But there is still hope for Makhachev. After all, UFC CEO Dana White has promised an as-of-yet undisclosed ‘special’ fight for Makhachev shortly. Could that mean a fight with Du Plessis? It doesn’t seem likely. Jumping from lightweight to middleweight is no easy task.

Is Islam Makhachev really looking for UFC glory or is he chasing big numbers?

Analyst Chael Sonnen seems to have some answers. A week ago, he took up the task of dissecting what Makhachev really wants ahead. “Islam’s got to talk about (Alex) Pereira at 205, and he’s got to talk about Dricus at 185… And that’s weird, and that’s not anything that anybody will take serious, but he has to do that because his friend [Muhammad] has the belt at 170,” Sonnen argued.

If the lightweight champion wants to skip welterweight and move to middleweight, he would need to take some time to bulk up and add more muscle. But it looks like he believes he could do it. Further, Sonnen also stated that Makhachev’s desire to move up to middleweight could open doors to an early retirement.

“The biggest problem Islam has is a thing that beat his coach twice and that ultimately retired – Khabib did not retire because he didn’t want to fight Conor (McGregor) a second time,” he opined. “The UFC showed him the wrong numbers. Every time they had a meeting, they showed more commas and more zeroes. That was the wrong number. If they would have made the weight class 170, they would have got Khabib for one more fight. They’re going to run into that same problem with Islam eventually.”

Here’s the thing: The Dagestani fought Alexander Volkanovski twice and won convincingly. He has also faced some of the best lightweights and tasted victory. It seems like now would be the right time for the 33-year-old to jump divisions.

Interestingly, Dana White has hinted at something quite big for the Russian in the future. While we don’t quite know what it is, it surely has to be something exciting. What do you think?