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Dricus Du Plessis was the next planned opponent for then middleweight champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 293, but the fighter suffered an injury and would be replaced by Sean Strickland, who went on to defeat Adesanya to win the UFC Middleweight Title.
The fighter had some hurdles to overcome after losing his title shot, but Du Plessis doesn’t plan on begging the UFC for a title shot.
“It took me maybe a week or so to almost stop feeling sorry for myself like this is unfair,” Du Plessis said to Fox West Texas (transcript via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “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.”
Du Plessis currently sits at #2 in the middleweight division, with Adesanya being the only fighter ranked ahead of him.
Khamzat Chimaev could be next to challenge Strickland for the middleweight gold, but Du Plessis doesn’t like Chimaev’s chances against the champion.
“If you want to give Khamzat the title shot, go right ahead,” Du Plessis continued. “Because Khamzat that fought this weekend loses to Sean Strickland every day of the week.”
