Daniel
Cormier recently revealed a conversation with Alex
Pereira about fighting Dricus Du
Plessis.
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Du Plessis made his second successful middleweight title defense
with a dominant decision win over Sean
Strickland at UFC 312
this past weekend in Sydney. In his post-fight Octagon interview,
“Stillknocks” called out light heavyweight champ Alex
Pereira, who was in Strickland’s corner. The South African did
so by quoting the famous one liner from the movie Gladiator: “Is
there no one left?”
Cormier, who was on the commentary team, subsequently made it clear
to Pereira that Du Plessis called him out. Pereira allegedly
dismissed Du Plessis as too small for 205 pounds. Regardless of
whether the South African moves up at some point, “DC” notes that
he first has to deal with at least Khamzat
Chimaev at middleweight.
“Dricus Du Plessis is the man,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “In the Octagon, he called out
Pereira. I told Pereira after the fight, I go, ‘He wants you,
Pereira.’ Pereira goes, ‘He’s just too small.’ Seriously. Pereira
goes, ‘This man is just too small.’ Alex is huge, though. I mean,
he looked massive compared to Dricus. I love that Dricus has these
big goals. I just think he still has work to do at middleweight
before he starts thinking about going up – Khamzat Chimaev being
problem No. 1.”
Du Plessis won the title against Strickland via split decision at
UFC 297 last year and went on to defend it against Israel
Adesanya via submission at UFC 305. While Du Plessis is eyeing
Pereira, he also
admitted the need to get past Chimaev first at the UFC 312
post-fight press conference.
Meanwhile, Pereira won the middleweight title against Adesanya,
lost it in a rematch, moved up and won the light heavyweight strap
and has since defended it three times – all within a span of two
years. “Poatan” is now set to put his title on the line against
Magomed
Ankalaev in the main event at UFC 313
on March 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.