Former UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis is hoping to somehow reclaim a rematch against Khamzat Chimaev in April.
The pair of UFC middleweights clashed for the title back in August last year when Khamzat Chimaev dominated the South African for five rounds to become the new champion.
Since then, both ‘Stillknocks’ and Chimaev have been inactive, as the Chechen plots his first middleweight title defense.
And although Dricus Du Plessis will likely need to pick up at least one win before he is reconsidered for another title fight, he is hopeful that he can reclaim the 185lb strap.
Du Plessis aims to make Chimaev fight ‘his fight’ in potential rematch
At this point, it seems likely that ‘Borz’ will make the first defense of his title against Nassourdine Imavov, who is currently ranked number two in the division.
However, ‘Stillknocks’ is hoping that he may be able to change the UFC’s plans and he is audaciously hoping for a title rematch against Chimaev in April.
In their first meeting, ‘Borz’ dominated the South African with his smothering wrestling skill set, and although Du Plessis was unhappy with the way in which he lost his title, he knows that’s what Chimaev brings to the cage.
“Fighting Khamzat again is of course what I’m after, am I expecting any surprises, no,” Du Plessis told Fight Forecast.
“There’s not going to be any surprises, that’s the way he’s gonna fight and if he tries anything different it will be a terrible night (for him). He did what he had to do to win the belt, and we can’t hate on him for that,” he continued.
And despite his wrestling and grappling defense having come into question against Chimaev, Du Plessis plans to make ‘Borz’ fight his fight in a potential rematch.
“Now it’s my responsibility to go and fix that, to stop him from doing that again and getting him to fight my fight.”
Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC
Du Plessis wary that his next fight is the most important of his life
Although his loss against Chimaev was the first of his UFC tenure, the 32-year-old is wary that his next outing is the most important fight of his life.
The South African is targeting a return in April and he knows that if he was to unfortunately lose that outing, it would be a huge climb for him to get back into title contention.
“We need to fix some things, obviously, and I spend time now doing that. But like I said, I’ll be ready for April. I would love to be on that April card,…
2026-02-13 04:00:00
