“For me, we needed to fix some things, obviously, and I spent some time doing that,” du Plessis told Fight Forecast. “I’ll be ready for April. I’d love to be on that April card, the Miami card (UFC 327). There’s no opponent yet. There’s no contract yet. We don’t have any of that. Whoever. Let’s go. I’m ready to go again and get my belt back as soon as possible. It doesn’t really matter who it is.”
Advertisement
Du Plessis won the 185-pound championship at UFC 297 in January 2024 by defeating then-champion Sean Strickland via split decision. He successfully defended the belt twice before losing to Chimaev at UFC 319.
Dricus du Plessis wants revenge with Khamzat Chimaev
While du Plessis is willing to face anyone at UFC 327, he knows who he would like to fight. The South African wants a rematch with the champion even though their UFC 319 title fight was a one-sided dominant performance from Chimaev.
“Of course I would love for it to be Khamzat and redeem that loss,” he said. “For me, right now the next fight is the most important fight of my life. And I will win that fight and get my belt back.”
Advertisement
“Fighting Khamzat again is, of course, what I’m looking for. Expecting any surprises (in a rematch)? No. There won’t be any surprises. I mean, that’s the way he’s going to fight. And if he tries something different, it’s going to be a terrible night (for him). We all know that, but he did what he had to do to win that belt. We can’t hate him for that. He did what he had to do. It’s the rules of the game and he did it. So, saying it’s not fair, it’s fair. He did what he had to do, it’s not the way I would win my belt, or would like to do it, but that’s what he did, now it’s my responsibility to go and fix that to stop him from doing that again and get me to fight my fight,” du Plessis continued.
“It’s always great when you have a guy that comes and fights because that’s my style and that’s what I love to do to entertain, listen to the crowd go crazy. But he knows that and that’s why he went with that style because, and again I understand that it wasn’t the best fight to watch. In fact, it was a terrible fight to watch. But he did what he had to do to win that title. And good for him. My responsibility is to stop him from doing that, and that’s what I will do… I’ll get my belt back at the end. this year.”