The UFC tried to drag Dricus du Plessis up to 205 pounds for a mini tournament, and his head coach shut it down.
Morne Visser told Fight Forecast that the promotion approached him about three weeks ago with a plan to put the former middleweight champion into a four-man pool alongside Jiri Prochazka, Magomed Ankalaev and Navajo Stirling. As Visser laid it out, the four would fight on one night, the winners would meet, and whoever survived that would get Carlos Ulberg for the light heavyweight title. Visser called it “a bit of a Grand Prix.” Bloody Elbow first picked up his comments.
His reason for passing came down to the scale. Visser said “it’s very easy to go up to 205lbs but it took me a year to get Dricus from welterweight to middleweight” and argued that a jump in weight class should be done gradually. He was clear the move is coming eventually, calling it “100% the plan.” The order of operations is the sticking point. Visser said the camp wants “our middleweight belt back and then to defend it once” before anybody starts talking about a second strap.
Where du Plessis stands at 185
Du Plessis lost his middleweight title to Khamzat Chimaev, then bounced back this July with a dominant win over Kamaru Usman. Since then he’s been campaigning for another title shot, and his case is a decent one on paper: he’s already beaten current champion Sean Strickland twice.
The problem is the line. Strickland is expected to defend against Nassourdine Imavov next, and nobody can say when that fight happens because Strickland is in an ongoing dispute with the UFC over his pay. That logjam is part of why the 205 talk started in the first place. Ankalaev even claimed he’s been negotiating with the UFC about a fight with du Plessis.
Visser said du Plessis will be ready to compete again in February or March 2027, and the camp has asked the UFC for a fight with Imavov. That’s an interesting ask, since Imavov is the guy currently slotted in for the title shot. Whether the UFC wants to risk its next challenger in a side fight is another matter.
Meanwhile, the light heavyweight division keeps moving without him. Prochazka and Stirling are booked to fight each other on November 21, and the winner is now the likely next challenger for Ulberg.
I’ll admit the tournament pitch is the kind of booking I love. Four dangerous light heavyweights, one night, a title shot at the end of it. Somebody in matchmaking deserves a drink for even floating it. But Visser is right, and it isn’t close. You don’t ask a guy who walked around as a welterweight not that long ago to bulk up and fight Ankalaev and Prochazka types on one card on a few months’ notice. Get the belt back at 185, defend it, then go chase Ulberg. The Prochazka vs. Stirling winner on November 21 will probably be holding the light heavyweight conversation by the time du Plessis is ready to have it anyway.
