It was Dricus du Plessis’ UFC 290 win over former champion Robert Whittaker that put him over so to talk. He had overwhelmed Darrin Until and Derek Brunson heading into the Whittaker title eliminator bout however his win over “The Reaper” let everybody know that there was a brand new face within the high tier of the 185-pound division.
Du Plessis fought for the title in his subsequent struggle in opposition to then-champion Sean Strickland. He narrowly defeated “Tarzan” to seize UFC gold. At UFC 305 on Aug. 18, du Plessis efficiently defended the belt for the primary time in opposition to former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya. The win drew the eye of sunshine heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
“Coming all the way down to 185 yet another time.” Pereira mentioned after watching du Plessis defeat Adesanya. Whittaker does not assume it is the perfect thought for Pereira to drop again all the way down to middleweight to tackle the champion.
“Truthfully, I do not assume that is an excellent struggle for him (Pereira),” Whittaker advised Submission Radio. “I do not assume that is an excellent struggle for him.”
Having success in a division up is one factor. It is fairly frequent. Daniel Cormier, Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and many others. have pulled it off. It might probably have benefits like pace and never having to chop weight. However transferring down a division hasn’t usually been a recipe for a profitable end result. It did not work out for former light-weight champions Frankie Edgar, or BJ Penn, or former featherweight titleholder Cody Garbrandt, to call a number of.
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“If you transfer as much as gentle heavyweight, transferring again down is hard,” Whittaker mentioned. “It isn’t such as you transfer up for one struggle. He is stayed up there. He is been preventing up there for awhile now, so it might take quite a bit out of him to get down. And Dricus is so sturdy there.”
“Alex will get hit, and Dricus likes getting hit. It is arduous to see somebody with the quantity of energy to cease Dricus from strolling ahead into you,” Whittaker continued. “Dricus hits arduous. You noticed that within the struggle with Adesanya. Adesanya has like a extremely good chin. Dricus was nonetheless hurting him sufficient to make him uncomfortable.”
Pereira places his 205-pound title on the road within the UFC 307 principal occasion in opposition to Khalil Rountree Jr. in Salt Lake Metropolis on Oct. 5. Whittaker faces the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. Du Plessis is anticipated to rematch Strickland in his subsequent title protection.
