Morne Visser, coach of UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, discussed when the South African fighter would like to face light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira from Brazil. Pereira has previously indicated his intention to return to the middleweight division.
Visser said, according to Bloody Elbow:
No – I won’t give him the joy to go down to 185; we’ll just go up… He [DDP] doesn’t want to beat him [at 185 because] he’ll say that we’ve gone down, he was fatigued and whatever so no, we’ll go up [instead]. He’s fighting in October, so I really hope that the UFC gives us this blessing for December.
On October 5th, Pereira will defend his title against American Khalil Rountree at UFC 307. The Brazilian fighter holds a record of 11 wins and 2 losses.
On August 18th, during UFC 305, Dricus du Plessis won against New Zealand's Israel Adesanya by submission in the fourth round. Du Plessis has a record of 22 wins and 2 losses.