Former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis was dominated by Khamzat Chimaev in their title clash last year, but despite that, he’s still eager to get a rematch with the only fighter to beat him in the Octagon.
“Fighting Khamzat again is what I’m after,” du Plessis told the ‘Fight Forecast’. “Expecting any surprises? No. There’s not going to be any surprises. That is the way he’s going to fight, and if he tries anything different it will be a terrible night, but we all know that. He did what he had to do to win that belt. We can’t hate on him for that. He did what he needed to do. It’s the rules of the game and he did it. So saying that it’s not fair, it is fair, he did what he had to do. Not how I would win my belt or would like to, but that’s what he did. Now it’s my responsibility to go and fix that to stop him from doing that again and get him to fight my fight.
“It’s always great if you have a guy that comes and fights because it’s my style and it’s what I love to do entertain, to hear the crowd go crazy,” du Plessis added. “But he knows that and that’s why he went for that style. Once again, I understand that it wasn’t the best fight to watch. In fact, it was a terrible fight to watch, but he did what he had to do to win that title and good for him. My responsibility is to stop him from doing that and that’s what I will do.”
Though he was on a nine-fight winning streak prior to his unanimous decision loss against Khamzat, at this stage it seems unlikely that DDP will get an immediate rematch, but either way, he is currently expecting to return to action as early as April.
“I’ll be ready for April,” du Plessis said. “I would love to be on that April card, the Miami card. There’s no opponent yet, there’s no contract yet, we don’t have any of that. Whoever. Let’s go. I’m ready to go again and get back to my belt as soon as possible. Doesn’t really matter who it is. I would, of course, love for it to be Khamzat and redeem that loss, but for me right now, the next fight is the most important fight of my life.”
And he’s also made a bold prediction about how his 2026 campaign is going to pan out.
“I’ll have my belt back before the end of this year,” DDP stated.
