Dricus Du Plessis Was Open to Islam Makhachev’s
Islam Makhachev floated a move up from lightweight to challenge Dricus du Plessis for the middleweight title in January 2025. Du Plessis was preparing for his Sean Strickland rematch and initially said he did not take the idea seriously, while praising Makhachev as an elite fighter. He also said he would accept the matchup if circumstances made sense, describing it as an “easy payday.”
At the time, the proposal was a public hypothetical between champions separated by the welterweight division; the proposed move from lightweight to middleweight was up two divisions, not an announced bout. Du Plessis held the middleweight championship, while Makhachev was the lightweight titleholder. Any move between those divisions would have required a different weight class and title context, so the headline’s suggestion that Du Plessis could claim Makhachev’s ranking or Pereira’s belt goes beyond the comments that were reported.
The existing video is a related interview from the same period: Du Plessis discusses Makhachev, training with former opponents Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, and the possible matchup. It is interview material, not footage of a booked fight.
The exchange was hypothetical. Du Plessis did not say he wanted to claim Makhachev’s ranking, and Alex Pereira was not the middleweight champion: Pereira then held the light heavyweight title. Contemporary reporting on Du Plessis’ response framed the fight as a possibility only if both men lacked more pressing options.
That distinction matters because an athlete saying he would consider a lucrative challenge is different from campaigning for a title shot. Du Plessis’s immediate priority was the scheduled rematch with Strickland. He retained his middleweight title in February 2025, then lost it to Khamzat Chimaev by unanimous decision in August. He later returned with a five-round decision win over Kamaru Usman in July 2026. Those results give the original comments context without turning them into a promise that the two champions would meet.
Makhachev’s route changed as well. He moved up to welterweight, won that division’s championship in November 2025, and defended it against Ian Machado Garry in August 2026. His official athlete profile lists his current division and results. That later move makes clear the January exchange did not set a fixed plan for either fighter; each continued toward different opportunities.
The original belt-and-ranking framing therefore needs qualification. Du Plessis was open to a cross-division superfight on the right terms, but there was no booking and no agreement to contest a particular belt. Pereira’s championship was in another division, and Makhachev’s eventual step up was to welterweight. The lasting point is the contrast between a provocative hypothetical and the actual career paths that followed.
The weight-class gap explains why the idea drew attention, but it does not make a fight automatic. A titleholder’s willingness to entertain a matchup is only one part of making it real; the athletes and promotion would still need to agree on division, date, title status and terms. None of those arrangements were confirmed in the January comments. Keeping that distinction in view preserves the news value of Du Plessis’s answer without presenting a hypothetical as a signed contest.
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Tags: MMA
