Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t think Alex Pereira will be a long-reigning middleweight champ.
Du Plessis is the current 10th-ranked middleweight and is coming off the biggest win of his career as he submitted Darren Till in the third round at UFC 282. With the win, Du Plessis improved to 18-2 as a pro and 4-0 in the UFC and as he gets closer to the top of the division. He thinks by the time he gets there, Pereira won’t be the champion.
Pereira became the UFC’s new middleweight champion at UFC 281 with a fifth-round TKO over Israel Adesanya. Although it was an impressive performance, Du Plessis believes Robert Whittaker will beat Pereira to become the new champ fairly soon.
Dricus Du Plessis Thinks Robert Whittaker Will Beat Alex Pereira
“Alex is a big dude,” Du Plessis said on The MMA Hour. “I saw him again on Saturday. He’s big for the weight, but I do think his style, which is more of a flat-footed style, he punches like a truck and he kicks hard and his striking is really good. I just think when it comes to mixed martial arts as a whole, I think Robert Whittaker has a style to beat Alex Pereira.”
“I think Whittaker is struggling with Izzy because maybe a mental block, and Izzy is really good at movement, so it makes it hard to take him down. He’s moving a lot, where I believe with Pereira, he’s a much more stagnant fighter,” Du Plessis said. “He stands in one spot with his feet planted, and he hits hard. I think that’s something that Whittaker will be able to take advantage of and take him down, and we saw when he’s on the ground and he’s put on his back, or he’s at the bottom, he’s not that great. I think Whittaker takes him down and TKOs or submits him.”
Whether or not Whittaker will even get to a title shot is uncertain, but Du Plessis doesn’t think he will have to worry about fighting Pereira for the belt.
