Dricus du Plessis envisions Bruce Buffer uttering “and new” into the microphone this weekend at UFC 320 and the former middleweight champion explained recently how he sees Alex Pereira getting it done on Saturday. On October 4th in the main event of the promotion’s next pay-per-view offering, ‘Poatan’ will run it back with the man who took his light heavyweight strap, Magomed Ankalaev.

The two will get locked into the cage at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and DDP sees Pereira evening up the series with Ankalaev after the Russian bested the Brazilian at UFC 313 in March. The South African mixed martial artist broke things down about this weekend’s UFC headliner while appearing on Fight Forecast and in offering his viewpoint on that big rematch, du Plessis said [via MMA Junkie],

“I’ve been looking at the training footage of Pereira for this one. He looks scary, he looks angry. And, you know, we’ll see what that loss did to him. He has come back from a loss and came back to reclaim the title, but this fight is a big fight for him. Ankalaev now has that confidence, of course, of being the champion. But I’m going to go Pereira on this one.”

Dricus du Plessis and Alex Pereira’s prior confrontation from earlier this year

This prediction from the former UFC middleweight champion caught some by surprise as things have not always been rosy between Dricus du Plessis and Alex Pereira. In February following du Plessis’ middleweight title defense in a rematch against Sean Strickland, Pereira approached DDP backstage with the intent of locking in a super fight between the two.

Pereira was serving as Strickland’s cornerman in that UFC 312 title fight with DDP calling out ‘Poatan’ in his post-fight interview with the then-light heavyweight champion approaching the South African combatant backstage to express his desire to make that fight happen.

It illustrates how quickly things can change in this sport with both men holding UFC titles just earlier on this year. Now neither combatant helms either divisional throne, although Pereira has a chance to change that in the coming days at UFC 320.