Daniel Cormier: Dricus Du Plessis middleweight fight much harder than Islam Makhachev thinks
Daniel Cormier warns UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev of a potential middleweight move.
Since he won’t fight UFC welterweight champ Belal Muhammad, Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) is willing to jump two weight classes just to fulfill his goal of becoming UFC dual-champion.
Cormier thinks Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) is often underestimated, despite having beaten former champs Robert Whittaker, Sean Strickland, and Israel Adesanya in his last three fights.
“I know it may not look as appealing to some as they want their world champions to look but, we just watched him submit Israel Adesanya,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “We just watched him break him down over the course of three rounds and get him to a point where Izzy got submitted by him, something we’d never seen before. We have seen him beat Sean Strickland, we have seen him finish Robert Whittaker, at some point we have to respect Dricus Du Plessis.
“I think Islam respects him. I don’t know that Islam would understand how hard it would be to fight a guy of that size. I think this guy might weigh 220 when he’s not making weight. You know, many people talk about the amount of weight that the Russians cut, and Islam cuts weight to make 155, but I don’t know even on his heaviest days, he weighs 185. Now I’m not saying that he can’t do it, I just think that it’s much harder than I think anyone understands to go up two weight classes.”
Du Plessis defends his middleweight title against Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) in a rematch, which headlines UFC 312 on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.
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