Middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis is set to defend his title against Khamzat Chimaev on August 16th at UFC 319. It’s the biggest fight the division has to offer, and if he gets past “Borz” there’ll be many calling for him to move up and chase new challenges at light heavyweight.

There’s few things better than a champion vs. champion fight, but these days the UFC is awash in belt holders chasing gold in multiple divisions. It makes you appreciate a champ who is willing to stay put and defend their belt against all comers — which is what “Stillknocks” is promising to do if he beats Chimaev in Chicago.

“That’s been the goal, the long term goal is to move up,” du Plessis told the Chicago Sports Network (via Red Corner MMA). “I’m still young in my career, 31 years old is a lot of time left. I’m a firm believer in at least three title defenses — this will be my third — before you move up in weight. And then of course the division needs to be cleaned out, in my opinion, before you move on to the next division.”

DDP has done a pretty good job of that, having beaten most of the big names at 185 en route to the title and a few more as champ. But he won’t be satisfied until he fights the next generation of contenders that have just jockeyed their way to the title.

“The middleweight division is looking very exciting at the moment,” he said. “There’s a shuffle in the top five. The top five has been the same for many years, and over the last year there’s been three changes. Robert Whittaker being out of the top five for the first time in eight years. And I’ve fought everyone in the top five up until last week. Now there’s two new names in the top five, which means the division is getting alive.”

“It wouldn’t have made sense for me to stay, but now that exciting fights are happening, I’m always in for the new hungry contenders. So let’s see how it happens, but I’m definitely interested at some point to move up to a new weight class.”

First he’ll have to defeat Khamzat Chimaev, who is undoubtedly the toughest challenge at middleweight right now.