The way Dricus Du Plessis won the middleweight title at UFC 305 may have been a tad bit unconvincing. After all, his UFC 297 clash with Sean Strickland was razor-close, which he won by a close and controversial split decision. Even Dana White had said he thought Strickland had won. But, any doubts about the South African’s credentials were ended after his UFC 305 win over a resurgent Israel Adesanya. Although ‘Izzy’ looked sharp as ever and had his moments, ‘DDP’s relentless pressure and offense proved too good for the Kiwi-Nigerian.

DDP’s impressive performance has now earned a call-out from the light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, a challenge that the middleweight champ has accepted. Former UFC champion Michael Bisping thinks it’s crazy that Du Plessis wants to move up to 205 pounds to fight Pereira, however, he understands why the South African wants that challenge.

Bisping believes Dricus Du Plessis isn’t risking anything against Pereira

Du Plessis answered Alex Pereira’s challenge for a 185-pound fight by telling the Brazilian that he would come up to 205 so that Pereira doesn’t “have some sort of excuse.” This, of course, would also give the South African an opportunity to become a concurrent two-division champion.

Michael Bisping is not a fan of the two-division idea as he thinks it has been overplayed of late. After all, champions Sean O’Malley, Islam Makhachev, Belal Muhammad, Alex Pereira himself, and now Du Plessis, all have said they want to move up to fight for champ-champ status.

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“Dricus Du Plessis wants to be a simultaneous two-division champion and Dricus, of course, this man is a warrior. He wants the biggest fights possible and he will take the fight against Pereira. But he doesn’t want it at 185, oh no no no. He wants to go up to 205 already and potentially become a double champ. Champ- champ status in his third title fight, it’s crazy,” Bisping said.

Bisping did agree that fighting ‘Poatan’ at light heavyweight made perfect sense for ‘DDP’ since it was a low-risk fight for him. Even if he loses to Pereira at 205, he still will have his 185-pound belt to fall back to.

“A lot of fighters, they do this all too often. I ain’t talking s**t about Dricus and he actually has a pretty good explanation. However, if he went up to 205 and he lost to Pereira, he would still be the 185-pound champ. So he’s not risking anything other than a loss on his record,” Bisping added.

In the meantime, Dana White has indicated that Sean Strickland is next in line for Du Plessis, but the South African doesn’t agree even though he has no choice in the matter.

Dricus Du Plessis thinks Whittaker deserves a title shot over Strickland

Given the way their previous encounter went, there is no doubt that Sean Strickland deserves to fight Dricus Du Plessis next. And ‘Tarzan’ has been calling out ‘DDP’ for a rematch. However, Du Plessis disagrees and thinks Robert Whittaker deserves to fight him next.

Dismissing Strickland’s claim, the South African felt that the only thing in ‘Tarzan’s favor was that his fight went to a decision. Du Plessis pointed out that Whittaker had beaten Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov in a dominant fashion this year alone, and will be fighting Khamzat Chimaev soon, while Strickland’s fight with Costa was considerably closer.

And if ‘Reaper’ does manage to beat Chimaev on UFC 308 in October, it would be really difficult to deny him a title shot, even though the Kiwi former champ lost to Du Plessis on UFC 290 last year. But since Dana White has already announced Strickland is next, it doesn’t matter if Du Plessis thinks Robert Whittaker is more deserving.

Who do you think Dricus Du Plessis’ second title defense should be against? Strickland or Whittaker? Let us know in the comments below.