Alex Pereira and Dricus Du Plessis verbally agreed to a title fight after running into each other backstage on Saturday night.
The light-heavyweight champion travelled to Sydney to corner Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC 312. Unfortunately, Pereira’s advice wasn’t enough to turn around the result from their initial meeting, with Du Plessis breaking his rival’s nose in a dominant near-clean sweep on the judges’ scorecards.
It seems that the Brazilian’s visit was not totally wasted, however, as he ran into Du Plessis after the show and seemed to agree to a title fight. However, the pair can’t do much yet, as Pereira is due to face Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 in less than a month’s time.
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Alex Pereira claims Dricus Du Plessis agreed to title fight after backstage run-in
According to Full Send MMA, there was a brief interaction behind the scenes between Alex Pereira and Dricus Du Plessis following the main event of UFC 312. The pair are bitter enemies, but a language barrier stopped them from exchanging many words.
Speaking to Full Send, coach Pilino Cruz was able to explain exactly what had happened while translating for Pereira. “Alex was inside the cage over there,” he said after Pereira spoke to the camera in Portugese. “And Dricus looked at him and asked ‘is there no one else?’
“Of course he doesn’t understand because he don’t speak English. Then he came and asked me what happened, I told him he basically challenged him so luckily we’re walking down, Dricus had the belt and Alex said ‘oh I heard you are calling me out’.
“Dricus said ‘yes’ and then Alex said ‘make it happen at 205’. Dricus looked, thought a little bit and said ‘deal. So let’s see if he’ll run back on his words… Let’s see the super fight happen.”
When host Seany Mac asked if after Ankalaev Du Plessis would be next, Pereira responded via Cruz: “Absolutely, of course we are focused for March 8. But seeing how this happened right now we couldn’t let it pass, we shook hands so we deal. Chama.”
Dricus Du Plessis opens up about Alex Pereira fight
During the post-fight press conference, Du Plessis was asked for his take on what had happened during the incidents both backstage and in the octagon. He noted that it was funny how Pereira couldn’t fully understand the callout despite him framing it brilliantly.
“Yeah he came up and said ‘did you challenge me?'” Du Plessis explained. “I was like ‘I did the whole movie scene and everything’ and then he’s like ‘did you challenge me?’ That’s kind of anti-climactic but sure, yes.
“I said ‘yeah, I did challenge you’ but I do have the world of respect for Alex Pereira. I think he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, I have the most respect for him and what he’s done in a short period of time in the UFC.
“To come from another sport and what he’s done there is incredible. But I want to share the octagon with that man and I’ve beaten Adesanya who has beaten him, I know I can beat him and at 205lb, 100 per cent.”
However, Du Plessis insists that he must first get through Khamzat Chimaev in his own division, while Pereira is taking care of Ankalaev. “Khamzat is first,” he continued. “I said ‘please beat Ankalaev’ no hate against Ankalaev, I just want to beat Alex Pereira. It’s nothing personal.
“It was just that Pereira is such a legend in this sport to me already so it would be amazing to beat him for my legacy. I want to be the greatest to ever do this but Khamzat is next, I want to make sure that this belt, the middleweight title, that there is no question that I am the GOAT.”
Alex Pereira reportedly ‘hates’ Dricus Du Plessis
Despite the show of respect from Du Plessis, it appears that there may be a bitter feud brewing between the pair underneath the surface. After all, Pereira did fly across the world a month out from a title fight in order to help his opponent to take the belt.
And speaking during the week, Sean Strickland claimed that it was this secret hatred that drove Pereira to make the outlandish move of travelling all the way right at the peak of fight camp.
“I think Alex is an angry m———–,” Strickland told media during his pre-fight duties this week. Like Alex is angry and for some reason dude he hates Dricus. Like I don’t know what you did to him but he f—— hates you dude.
“So it’s like the way he looks at Dricus sometimes I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m fighting him dawg, like it’s me dude’. But yeah no, Alex just has that hate in his heart and he’s a good dude so he’s out there, I was like, ‘Let’s come on, let’s get it in’.”
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