The current UFC middleweight champion is looking to secure his third title defense on August 16.
Dana White is expecting big things from Dricus du Plessis’ matchup with Khamzat Chimaev, which will headline UFC 319 on Saturday night.
‘Stillknocks’ has proved a lot of people wrong in recent years by continuing his remarkable winning streak inside the Octagon.
With many believing that Chimaev will be his toughest test, a win for the champion will surely significantly increase his stock.
Du Plessis already has his sights set on Anderson Silva’s status as the greatest middleweight of all time, believing that he’s “getting very close to that”.
Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty ImagesChris Weidman admits that Dricus du Plessis might overtake him in the UFC middleweight GOAT conversation
While the UFC’s middleweight division has been around for a long time, only seven fighters have been able to successfully defend the title after becoming champion.
That’s largely due to Anderson Silva’s legendary dominant reign that saw him hold the belt from 2007 all the way up to July of 2023.
While both Silva and Israel Adesanya will still be ahead of Dricus du Plessis in defenses if he wins at UFC 319, he will tie Chris Weidman’s run of three consecutive defenses.
UFC middleweight champions who successfully defended the titleTitle defensesMurilo Bustamante1 – UFC 37 in 2002Rich Franklin2 – UFC 56 in 2005, UFC 58 in 2006Anderson Silva10 – consecutive from 2007 to 2012Chris Weidman3 – UFC 168 in 2013, UFC 175 in 2014, UFC 187 in 2015Michael Bisping1 – UFC 204 in 2016Israel Adesanya5 – consecutive in his first reignDricus du Plessis2 – UFC 305 in 2024, UFC 312 in 2025
In a recent interview with Mike Bohn, Weidman admitted that with title defenses being the main metric he uses to judge how great a champion is, he doesn’t take issue with people ranking du Plessis above him if he’s successful on August 16.
“I’m big into title defenses, that’s how it’s always been for me in my mind of like who’s the best in a weight class because I know how hard it is to get the championship, but also to hold on to it. It was guys like Anderson Silva, at least in my weight class, where you looked at that was the most impressive thing.
“That was what everybody had to try to chase if you were going to try to become the GOAT of the weight class… This is now DDP’s third title defense, if he gets this win, he ties me with most title defenses and it’s up in the air. You want to throw him ahead of me, you want to put him right behind me, I would say that’s probably fair.”
Chris Weidman believes that cardio will be key for Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319
Chris Weidman thinks very highly of Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling ability but he isn’t sure whether that will be enough to win him the middleweight title.
Like a lot of people’s predictions, he thinks that if ‘Borz’ is going to get his hand raised, he needs to put the champion away early at UFC 319.
With that in mind, Weidman predicted that Dricus du Plessis’ experience as a five round fighter will be the key to him winning on Saturday night.
“I think DDP is going to win this fight just because of that. Now I could see, if DDP loses, he’s going to get finished in the first three rounds but if I had to put all my money on it, I would go DDP on this one.”