Dricus du Plessis’ view on the UFC’s middleweight division
Former UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis has given his thoughts on the current state of the division.
Earlier this year, Dricus du Plessis’ reign as the king of the middleweights came to an end. He lost to Khamzat Chimaev in a fairly one-sided contest, and ever since then, fans have been left to wonder what’s next for DDP.
While Dricus du Plessis is still young enough to make another big push for the title, there are plenty of other names starting to pop up at 185 pounds who could mount a real challenge for the gold. Of course, as of this writing, it’s not clear as to when Chimaev will return to defend his title.
In a recent interview, Dricus du Plessis gave a detailed breakdown of the middleweight division.
Dricus du Plessis analyzes middleweights
“Imavov is getting the title shot,” Du Plessis told Fight Forecast. “I think that’s the only thing that really makes sense now is Imavov getting that shot at the belt. But I think it’s going to be an interesting fight. I think Khamzat wins that fight for sure.
“And as for myself, I don’t really know. The whole division’s been mixed up. When you have Imavov and Caio fighting, these two guys emerge as potential contenders, the winner there’s the contender. Not a great fight, in my opinion. Those two guys stood there and there were moments of brilliance, and I rate Caio Borralho, I picked him to win that fight, but on the night he just didn’t show up.
“He just didn’t show up. Well done to Imavov for winning that fight, he did what he had to do, but right now you don’t have anybody who’s consistently winning and that’s the problem. How do you pick a contender? You have guys that fight two great fights, one terrible one. The consistency isn’t there, but there’s so many good fighters, it’s just the consistency. Glad it’s not my job to pick the fight.”
“I think the Reinier de Ridder loss kind of threw things off,” du Plessis said. “You could see in that fight he didn’t look on par at all. I rate him, I think he’s a great fighter, he’s a gritty fighter. Awkward fighter, and I like that style. But in that fight you could see he was flat. I think maybe he fought too much, cut too much weight [too] often. Cutting weight is one thing, but cutting it that often, it gets hard for a big guy like him.”
“Then of course you have Hernandez, the de Ridder fight, which would have been an amazing fight, great fight,” du Plessis said. “I heard Strickland say that he’s fighting Hernandez, that will be an amazing fight because Strickland to get down is one thing, to keep him there, he’s really good at that.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
