Dricus du Plessis Shoots Down Islam Makhachev’s Middleweight Ambitions—Labels It a Fantasy

Dricus du Plessis is not very amused with Islam Makhachev or his camp. The UFC lightweight champion recently made a very bold statement about going up in weight and challenging for another title. However, now that Belal Muhammad is the welterweight champion and Islam can not fight his own teammate. So now the Dagestani fighter is eyeing a potential move up to middleweight.

DDP is the current king of the division with his first title defense coming up against Israel Adesanya. As of now, he has bigger things to worry about than Makhachev.

In a recent interview with Kevin Iole on YouTube, the UFC middleweight champion was asked about Islam’s middleweight aspirations, he simply said that Makhachev was dreaming big, little too big.

“Everybody can dream right? I always say never cap your dreams and dream big. But he’s dreaming real big. I’m very big.”

 

Dricus du Plessis laughs at the idea of Islam Makhachev moving up to middleweight:

“Everybody can dream right… dream big, but he’s dreaming REAL big. I’m VERY big.”

@KevinI #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/5zV7iwbRKa

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 8, 2024

du Plessis could only laugh it off as Iole asked him the question. He didn’t seem to be even considering the prospect of Makhachev at welterweight.

Although it is not uncommon for a fighter to move up in weight, very few have gone up three weight classes and none have ever won titles in three separate divisions.

Speaking of titles, there’s one man calling du Plessis out for the title shot, Sean Strickland. However, the South African native has no intentions of obliging.

DDP claims Strickland will have to wait a while

du Plessis does not see Sean Strickland challenging for the title anytime soon. The former champion lost his belt to the South African and has since been calling for a rematch.

However, in the same interview with Kevin Iole, the champ spoke about who’s next for the title following the Israel Adesanya fight,

“The winner of Khamzat and Whittaker is gonna get the title shot. Strickland says he’s gonna wait until he gets a title shot, he’s gonna wait for quite a while.”

 

Dricus du Plessis thinks the winner of Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev will get the next title shot over Sean Strickland

“The winner of Khamzat and Whittaker is gonna get the title shot.

Strickland says he’s gonna wait until he gets a title shot, he’s gonna wait for quite… pic.twitter.com/w9tmoysRW6

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 8, 2024

However, he may be getting too ahead of himself since all this is dependent on him beating Adesanya. But if he does, Strickland definitely won’t be the next in line, especially since he had refused a #1 contender fight against Whittaker for the same.