The MMA world is still consumed with figuring out who will fight in the main event of UFC 300 on April 13th, but it seems like one of the options – newly crowned middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis going up against his rival Israel Adesanya or a rematch with Sean Strickland – is unlikely to happen.
That’s the word according to du Plessis, who hasn’t completed ruled out the possibility, but seems to be less and less convinced by the idea of fighting at the historic event.
“I have no idea [when it’ll be],” du Plessis told South African radio station Jacaranda FM in regards to his next fight. “For me, right now, we are still busy with some scans and seeing what we can do in terms of after the fight, some injuries, can we fight soon, is that a possibility and all that. So that’ll be great [to get that done], that’ll be great, but we have to make sure that the longevity of my career is also taken into consideration. We’ve had a very active last year, year and a half. And that’s what I said, we rushed to get to this belt, we had to take every opportunity given to us. Right now, we need to be smart and defend this belt when it suits us.”
Instead of UFC 300, Du Plessis is continuing to push the idea of fighting later in the year at an as-yet-unconfirmed event in South Africa.
“I think UFC 300 is obviously going to be a milestone event,” du Plessis said. “I think it’s going to be great. Every time you have the UFC 100, UFC 200, and now 300, all of are massive events and the pay-per-views are insane, it’s a massive hype, and I would love to be part of that, but not if it’s going to mean that I’m not going to be fully recovered. Defending my title is much more important to me than being on this milestone event.
“The real milestone event will be UFC in Africa, and more importantly, South Africa. I can’t even explain to you how long I’ll be willing to wait to make that happen and defend my belt on home soil. That’s history. UFC 300 is just a number. It’s not as massive as UFC Africa.”
As for who his opponent will be when he returns, du Plessis seems to favor Israel Adesanya, stating that, “that’s probably who it will be,” but he’s open to the idea of an immediate rematch with Sean Strickland instead.
“I wouldn’t mind, if that’s what the UFC wants,” du Plessis said of Strickland. “I always say, as a champion, you want to give the people the fight they want to see. For me, that’s the important thing. I want to be champion of the world so I don’t want to pick any fights because there’s going to be an easier fight. If you want to be the best in the world, you have to fight whoever is the next toughest guy in the division. So if the UFC decides they want to do Strickland two, I’m completely happy with that. If the fans say, no, that’s the fight they want, let’s do it. I honestly think the second fight will be a lot easier than the first one.”
