{"id":803030,"date":"2026-07-16T02:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803030\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T02:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:21:13","slug":"dricus-du-plessis-shuts-down-strickland-chimaev-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803030\/","title":{"rendered":"Dricus Du Plessis Shuts Down Strickland-Chimaev Rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis returns to action this weekend <\/a>against former Welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC Oklahoma City<\/a>, which goes down Sat., July 18, 2026, inside Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Middleweight division has gotten weird.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should only be one opinion,\u201d Du Plessis said during UFC Oklahoma City media day when asked about a Strickland vs. Chimaev rematch. \u201cBetween the two of them, they have an amazing zero title defenses. So, how do you warrant a rematch? In that case, I have two, so give me a rematch then. I have two wins over the current champion. It makes zero sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honestly, the former champion has a pretty valid point.<\/p>\n

Du Plessis has two wins over Strickland, defended the title twice and is now trying to fight his way back into the championship mix. But even with that resume, \u201cStillknocks\u201d does not believe simply beating Usman this weekend should automatically guarantee him another title shot.<\/p>\n

For Du Plessis, it has to be about the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe a victory alone can be enough,\u201d Du Plessis said. \u201cI think my resume, definitely, but I don\u2019t believe just a victory over Usman necessarily gives me a title shot, and the same for him. The performance. Going out there and putting on a performance that eliminates any doubt that I\u2019m the best in the world, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to guarantee me a shot at that title.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, who should get Strickland next?<\/p>\n

\u201cStrickland will be ready at the end of the year,\u201d Du Plessis said. \u201cI do believe Imavov vs. Strickland is the fight to make. It\u2019s the right fight to make<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Middleweight division suddenly loaded with deserving contenders, UFC has several directions it could go.<\/p>\n

Chimaev wants his rematch. Imavov has the best case. Du Plessis could jump right back into the mix with a big win. And Usman has a chance to blow the whole thing up this weekend.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, things could look very different by Monday morning.<\/p>\n

But as far as Du Plessis is concerned, Strickland vs. Chimaev 2 is not the answer.<\/p>\n

To checkout the latest UFC Oklahoma City fight card and rumors click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis returns to action this weekend against former Welterweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,355513,14855],"class_list":["post-803030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}