Dricus du Plessis: Khamzat Chimaev Loses to Sean Strickland ‘Every Day of the Week’

Dricus Du Plessis doesn't sound keen on losing his place in the queue of middleweight title challengers, but he isn’t too worried, either.

In an Oct. 26 interview on Fox West Texas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship 185-pound standout discussed Khamzat Chimaev’s showing against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294. Chimaev (13-0) dominated former welterweight champ Usman in the opening frame, earning 10-8 scores from all three official judges, but significantly lessened his output in the later rounds, fearing he had broken his right hand. “Borz” walked away with a closely contested majority decision and what was subsequently reported to be torn hand ligament.

Du Plessis was a particularly interested observer of that fight, since UFC CEO Dana White had indicated that the winner would get the next shot at middleweight champ Sean Strickland, who dethroned Israel Adesanya last month at UFC 293. Strickland’s upset win over Adesanya was especially shocking because he had stepped up on short notice, replacing du Plessis, who had been forced out of the bout with a foot injury. Du Plessis compared Chimaev’s hand injury to his own situation, arguing that “Borz” should forgo his title shot if he’s not fight ready soon.

“When you look at this, I have one of two options,” du Plessis said. “The first thing I can say is a little bit of a jab is Khamzat’s hand is broken, right? So he should be ready to fight in seven weeks or he forfeits his title shot because that’s what happened to me. I wasn’t ready to fight in seven weeks with a broken foot.”

Du Plessis claims that whether the promotion puts Chimaev into a title fight upon his return or not, his own plans are unaffected. “It took me maybe a week or so to almost stop feeling sorry for myself like this is unfair,” he said. “Life’s not fair, and the fight game is definitely not fair. I just said what I’ll do now is I’ll run over the whole division, I’ll run over the top five of this division, which will only make my move to light heavyweight quicker and easier. … Right now I’m not going to beg for any title shot. I’ve never begged for anything, I’ve fought for it.”

The 29-year-old was also critical of Chimaev’s performance at UFC 294, seeing nothing that would lead him to consider the undefeated Chechen-born Swede a threat to win the belt. “If you want to give Khamzat the title shot, go right ahead,” he said. “Because Khamzat that fought this weekend loses to Sean Strickland every day of the week.”