DDP Says ‘Chama’ To Pereira, But First…

DDP confirmed he’d agreed to fight ‘Poatan’ after a backstage confrontation, but it will have to wait until after he beats Chimaev.

Dricus Du Plessis intends to follow up on his challenge of Alex Pereira, but first he has a hiding to give to Khamzat Chimaev.

That was the message the middleweight champ delivered following his UFC 312 win over Sean Strickland. “Stillknocks” nearly blanked “Tarzan” on all three judges scorecards, winning a lopsided 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46 decision over his American foe (watch the highlights here). Their first fight was close. This one was not.

Following that win, he challenged former middleweight champion and current light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, who had cornered Strickland. While it took a while for the non-English Pereira to realize he’d been called out, the two ended up meeting backstage and agreeing to fight down the road.

At the UFC 312 post-fight press conference, Du Plessis explained how that went.

“He came up and he said, ‘Did you challenge me?’” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘I did the whole movie scene and everything, and you’re like, did you challenge me? That’s kind of anticlimactic. But sure. Yes. Yeah. I did challenge you.’”

“I have a world of respect for Alex Pereira,” Du Plessis continued. “I think he is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. I have the most respect for him, what he’s done in a short period of time in the UFC, to come from another sport, what he’s done there. But yes, I wanna share the octagon with that man. I want to be that guy. I’ve beaten Adesanya, who’s beaten him. I know I can beat him. And at 205, one hundred percent.”

“I said ‘Please beat Ankalaev.’ No hate against Ankalaev. I just wanna beat Alex Pereira. It’s nothing personal against Ankalaev. It was just Pereira, he’s such a legend in the sport to me already that it would be amazing to beat him. And for my legacy, I wanna be the greatest to ever do this. But Khamzat’s next.”

Above double champion glory, Du Plessis stated a desire to cement a legacy as one of the greatest middleweights of all time, a stiff challenge considering the legendary names in the division.

“I wanna make sure that this belt, the middleweight title, that there’s no question that I’m the GOAT of the middleweight division,” he said. “You have Anderson Silva. In my mind, he is the GOAT of this division. And you have Adesanya, who’s done incredible things. But it’s not just about how many times you defend. It’s about who you fight, how you defend it, and how you’ve done it … And making sure that there’s no question that I am the best middleweight, then going up.”

“So I’m not rushing that my next fight is Alex. No. I want the Khamzat next. I think he deserves a hiding.”

This news first appeared on MMA Mania. Read the original article.