Dricus du Plessis breaks down the state of UFC’s middleweight division

Former UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis has given his thoughts on the current state of the division.

As we know, Dricus du Plessis is one of the top middleweight fighters in mixed martial arts right now. However, he is no longer the champion in the UFC after he was beaten in a fairly one-sided fight against Khamzat Chimaev earlier this year.

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Ever since then, many have been wondering what the title picture will look like at 185 pounds moving forward. Chimaev is the champion, whereas du Plessis likely needs a couple more wins at the very least before he can even think about challenging for the gold again.

In a recent interview, du Plessis went into detail on his thoughts regarding some of the biggest names at middleweight right now.

du Plessis examines the middleweight division

“Imavov is getting the title shot,” Du Plessis told Fight Forecast. “I think that’s the only thing that really makes sense now is Imavov getting that shot at the belt. But I think it’s going to be an interesting fight. I think Khamzat wins that fight for sure.

“And as for myself, I don’t really know. The whole division’s been mixed up. When you have Imavov and Caio fighting, these two guys emerge as potential contenders, the winner there’s the contender. Not a great fight, in my opinion. Those two guys stood there and there were moments of brilliance, and I rate Caio Borralho, I picked him to win that fight, but on the night he just didn’t show up.

“He just didn’t show up. Well done to Imavov for winning that fight, he did what he had to do, but right now you don’t have anybody who’s consistently winning and that’s the problem. How do you pick a contender? You have guys that fight two great fights, one terrible one. The consistency isn’t there, but there’s so many good fighters, it’s just the consistency. Glad it’s not my job to pick the fight.”

“I think the Reinier de Ridder loss kind of threw things off,” du Plessis said. “You could see in that fight he didn’t look on par at all. I rate him, I think he’s a great fighter, he’s a gritty fighter. Awkward fighter, and I like that style. But in that fight you could see he was flat. I think maybe he fought too much, cut too much weight [too] often. Cutting weight is one thing, but cutting it that often, it gets hard for a big guy like him.”

“Then of course you have Hernandez, the de Ridder fight, which would have been an amazing fight, great fight,” du Plessis said. “I heard Strickland say that he’s fighting Hernandez, that will be an amazing fight because Strickland to get down is one thing, to keep him there, he’s really good at that.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting