Dricus Du
Plessis coach Morne Visser recently weighed in on potential
future matchups for the middleweight champ.
Advertisement
Du Plessis defended his strap with a fourth-round submission win
over Israel
Adesanya in the main event of UFC 305
in Perth, Australia, on Saturday. While “Stillknocks” and Adesanya
had long been beefing over their authenticity as “African champ,”
they appeared to bury the hatchet after their fight on
Saturday.
Visser says it’s a relief to have peace in Africa. Visser also
revealed that he had already discussed a potential rematch with
Adesanya when they crossed paths. According to Visser, Adesanya is
the most suitable opponent for a potential UFC card in South
Africa, which could happen during Du Plessis’ title reign.
“There’s peace in Africa now, which is a good feeling,” Visser told
Submission Radio. “I did say to Izzy when I saw
him earlier, I said to him that I believe there’s talks of doing [a
UFC card in] South Africa sometime. I don’t think that it’s gonna
be too soon. But I said to Izzy that I think that the only guy that
deserves to fight us in Africa is Izzy. So it’ll be rematch and the
only guy that deserves Africa are the two Africans, nobody
else.”
Meanwhile, former middleweight champ and reigning light heavyweight
champ Alex
Pereira is also plotting a move back to 185 pounds to challenge
Du Plessis. While Visser is definitely interested in the Pereira
matchup, he doesn’t want it to take place at middleweight. Visser
would rather have Du Plessis move up to light heavyweight and
believes the UFC will give the go-ahead for that wish. With Pereira
scheduled to defend his title against Khalil
Rountree at UFC 307
in October, Visser hopes “Poatan” can make a quick turnaround by
the end of the year.
“I won’t give him [Pereira] the joy to go down to 185 [pounds].
We’ll just go up,” Visser said. “Because we don’t want to beat him
and then he’ll say he had to go down and he was fatigued, whatever.
So now we’ll go up and I’m sure that the UFC will be OK with it. If
that’s what he said, I know Dricus’ game, so we’ll go up. I’m not
gonna wait for him to go down, we’ll go up… [Pereira’s] fighting in
October, so I really hope the UFC gives us this blessing for
December.”