It looked for a long time like Dricus Du Plessis’ next middleweight title defense would see him face Sean Strickland in a rematch but that was until Khamzat Chimaev changed the narrative. Du Plessis won the middleweight title at UFC 297 in January by beating Strickland via a split decision and after the former champ rebounded with a win, this was the clear direction to go in.
The only other potential candidate at the time was another former champion in Robert Whittaker but when he was booked to face Chimaev at UFC 308, all the title plans needed to be put on hold until that fight played out. What we ended up getting was a statement win from the undefeated Chimaev who became just the second man to submit “The Reaper” in 34 pro fights.
As a result, Chimaev challenging Du Plessis for the belt is now the most exciting fight in the division but one barrier to it happening could be the issues that “Borz” has faced in regards to staying active. His recent social media post appears to address that and remove it from the conversation.
Chimaev has not fought in the United States since UFC 279 in 2022 with his wins over Whittaker and Kamaru Usman both taking place in Abu Dhabi. He previously told Kevin Iole that if Donald Trump was re-elected as President, fighting in the United States wouldn’t be an issue for him.
“Let Donald Trump win the fight and I will be there.”
Posting on X, Chimaev tagged the 185-pound champion with nothing more than an image and eye emoji attached to get across his point that there is nothing that can get in the way of him being the next challenger. It now looks likely that we will see this huge fight take place at middleweight with it potentially being held in the United States.
