Dricus du Plessis’ coach Morne Visser has claimed that they recently turned down an intriguing offer from the UFC to participate in a four-man light-heavyweight tournament to establish a new title challenger in the division.

“They asked me three weeks ago; the UFC asked me for Dricus to move up to 205, they wanted us to join a pool of four fighters, Jiri [Prochazka], Dricus, [Magomed] Ankalaev and [Navajo] Stirling,” Visser told Fight Forecast.

“They wanted the four guys to go into a pool and fight in one night and then the winner of that fight each other and then the winner of that fight Carlos Ulberg, a bit of a Grand Prix. But I said no because it’s very easy to go up to 205 pounds, but it took me a year to get Dricus from welterweight to middleweight… That we will do it gradually because we will go up to 205, that is 100% the plan, but we want our middleweight belt back and we want to defend it once.”

While the UFC haven’t officially commented on the matter, it seems that they might have since rethought their tournament plans as as Jiri Prochazka vs. Navajo Stirling has since been scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 294 in Qatar on November 21st.

As for DDP, Visser says that he plans to return at middleweight in late February of March after his honeymoon.