Dricus Du Plessis’ coach is game for Alex Pereira next – but at light heavyweight.
Middleweight champion Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) notched his first title defense when he submitted Israel Adesanya in Round 4 of their UFC 305 headliner Saturday at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
Light heavyweight champion Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) stated that he’d drop back down to middleweight one more time to challenge Du Plessis, but head coach Morne Visser would rather Du Plessis move up for a shot at dual-champion status.
Pereira is currently slated to defend his title against Khalil Rountree in the UFC 307 main event Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City, and Visser hopes “Poatan” can continue his active run by making a quick turnaround by the end of the year.
“No, I won’t give him the joy to go down to 185 (pounds),” Visser told Submission Radio on Pereira. “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.”
Regarding the stylistic matchup between Du Plessis and Pereira, Visser wasn’t ready to give an answer just yet, but assured that if the UFC offered the fight, they’re accepting it right away.
“It’s a different game plan,” Visser said. “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.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.
