Dricus Du
Plessis doesn’t sound keen on losing his place in the queue of
middleweight title challengers, but he isn’t too worried,
either.
In an Oct. 26 interview on Fox West Texas, the
Ultimate Fighting Championship 185-pound standout discussed
Khamzat
Chimaev’s showing against Kamaru
Usman at UFC 294. Chimaev (13-0) dominated former welterweight
champ Usman in the opening frame, earning 10-8 scores from all
three official judges, but significantly lessened his output in the
later rounds,
fearing he had broken his right hand. “Borz” walked away with a
closely contested majority decision and what was
subsequently reported to be torn hand ligament.
Du Plessis was a particularly interested observer of that fight,
since UFC CEO Dana White had indicated that the winner would get
the next shot at middleweight champ Sean
Strickland, who dethroned Israel
Adesanya last month at UFC 293. Strickland’s upset win over
Adesanya was especially shocking because he had stepped up on short
notice, replacing du Plessis, who had been forced out of the bout
with a foot injury. Du Plessis compared Chimaev’s hand injury to
his own situation, arguing that “Borz” should forgo his title shot
if he’s not fight ready soon.
“When you look at this, I have one of two options,” du Plessis
said. “The first thing I can say is a little bit of a jab is
Khamzat’s hand is broken, right? So he should be ready to fight in
seven weeks or he forfeits his title shot because that’s what
happened to me. I wasn’t ready to fight in seven weeks with a
broken foot.”
Du Plessis claims that whether the promotion puts Chimaev into a
title fight upon his return or not, his own plans are unaffected.
“It took me maybe a week or so to almost stop feeling sorry for
myself like this is unfair,” he said. “Life’s not fair, and the
fight game is definitely not fair. I just said what I’ll do now is
I’ll run over the whole division, I’ll run over the top five of
this division, which will only make my move to light heavyweight
quicker and easier. … Right now I’m not going to beg for any title
shot. I’ve never begged for anything, I’ve fought for it.”
The 29-year-old was also critical of Chimaev’s performance at UFC
294, seeing nothing that would lead him to consider the undefeated
Chechen-born Swede a threat to win the belt. “If you want to give
Khamzat the title shot, go right ahead,” he said. “Because Khamzat
that fought this weekend loses to Sean
Strickland every day of the week.”