Du Plessis’ Coach Pushes For Pereira Fight In December
Morne Visser, Dricus du Plessis’ coach, wants his fighter to face Alex Pereira by the end of the year.
Du Plessis successfully defended his UFC Middleweight Title after beating Israel Adesanya via a fourth-round submission. After the win, Pereira stated he wanted to return to middleweight to reclaim the belt. Pereira lost his middleweight title to Adesanya at UFC 287 last year after getting knocked out in the second round. There was no rematch as Pereira moved up to light heavyweight.
He defeated Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 to become a two-weight world champion. However, Du Plessis reacted to Alex’s comments by saying he would only consider a fight if he moved up. That allows Du Plessis to chase a title in another weight class. He has already beaten the big names as a middleweight, with wins over Robert Whittaker, Sean Strickland, and Adesanya.
Du Plessis Vs. Pereira
Meanwhile, Pereira has big names as a light heavyweight. He faces Khalil Rountree at UFC 307 on October 5. Khalil may have won five on the bounce, but Ankalaev is seen as the danger man in the division. Ankalaev faces Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 on October 26. Provided he and Pereira win their next fights, Ankalaev wants the title shot. That is all the more reason for any fight at light heavyweight.
“No, I won’t give him the joy to go down to 185 (pounds). We’ll just go up because we don’t want to beat him and he’ll say that ‘We had to go down’ and he was fatigued and whatever. So, no – we’ll go up. I’m sure that the UFC will be OK with that – going up, if that’s what he said. I know Dricus is game, so we’ll go up. I’m not going to wait for him to come down. He’s fighting in October, so I really hope the UFC gives us the blessing for this for December – as soon as that,” Visser said
That all depends on how Du Plessis does moving forward. Dana White did say that the winner of Du Plessis vs. Adesanya would face Strickland next. Du Plessis won a controversial split decision win, with some feeling Strickland had been robbed. White even felt that Sean had done enough to win. Strickland is no pushover.
Game Plan
The former UFC Middleweight Champion bounced back from that loss to take on Paulo Costa at UFC 302. He defeated Costa via a split decision, but the scorecards did not reflect the dominant nature of his win. While Du Plessis is familiar with Strickland, Pereira is a different ball game. That is why Visser has a different game plan.
“It’s a different game plan. There’s no way we’re going to walk away from getting asked from the UFC to do something like that. We were criticized a few times with Dricus saying no with injuries in the past. This fight (vs. Adesanya) was supposed to happen earlier. I’m glad it didn’t because I’m sure Izzy changed his whole game plan, so this was a proper brawl,” Visser stated
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