Dricus Du Plessis has explained why he might not be as quick as some of his colleagues to challenge for a UFC title at a second weight.
Du Plessis holds the middleweight title, and he will make his third defence of the belt when he faces Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC 319 on 16 August.
That bout, against the unbeaten Russian, follows Du Plessis’s title win against Sean Strickland in January 2024, and successful defences against Israel Adesanya in August and Strickland this February.
Stark success at one weight, such as that achieved by the South African en route to the title and with it, often leads a fighter to pursue a second belt in the UFC. Ilia Topuria won the vacant lightweight title in June after giving up the featherweight belt in February, and Islam Makhachev is due a welterweight title shot later this year, having relinquished the lightweight strap in May.
Topuria and Makhachev’s records as champions were quite different, however, with Topuria recording just one defence before vacating his title, while Makhachev broke the record for successful lightweight defences by achieving four.
And although Du Plessis admits he would like to emulate those stars in moving up in weight, he suggested he is more likely to follow Makhachev’s example of seeking a lengthy title reign with numerous defences first.
“That’s been the goal, the long-term goal is to move up,” Du Plessis told the Chicago Sports Network. “I’m still young in my career, 31 years old, there’s a lot of time left.
“And I’m a firm believer that [you need] at least three title defences – this will be my third – before you move up in weight. And then of course, the division needs to be cleaned out, in my opinion, before you move on to the next division.
“The middleweight division is looking very, very exciting at the moment, the shuffle in the top five [...] I’d fought everyone in the top five up until last week. Now there’s two new names in the top five, which means the division is getting alive. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made sense to me to stay, but now there’s exciting fights happening, and I’m always in for the new, hungry contenders.
“Let’s see how it happens, but I’m definitely interested at some point in the near future to move up a weight class.”
Two recent middleweight champions have moved up to light-heavyweight with mixed success. During his first reign, two-time 185lb champion Adesanya challenged Jan Blachowicz for the 205lb belt in 2021, but he came up short. Then, after losing the middleweight title to Adesanya in 2023, Alex Pereira moved up and won the vacant light-heavyweight strap later that year, knocking out Jiri Prochazka to do so.
Pereira retained the light-heavyweight title three times – with a second knockout of Prochazka, and stoppages of Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr – before losing it to Magomed Ankalaev this March. Pereira and Ankalaev are scheduled for a rematch at UFC 320 in October.
