Coach Drops Date, Location For Next ‘DDP’ Title Defense

While the UFC hasn’t announced anything, Visser is preparing Du Plessis for a February middleweight title defense in Australia.

It sounds like Dricus Du Plessis is going to be headlining the UFC’s return to Sydney in February. Against who? Well, his coach has some interesting thoughts on that subject.

CIT Performance Institute head coach Morne Visser was on the latest episode of Submission Radio and he casually dropped the date on a “Stillknocks” middleweight title defense.

“I had a conversation with Dricus and I said to him there’s only one thing for certain at this stage: we’ve got to be ready to fight in Sydney in February,” he said.

The UFC has said Sean Strickland is next in line for a title shot, but Visser believes that could change if Robert Whittaker beats Khamzat Chimaev in the co-main of UFC 308 at the end of October.

“My opinion is Sean’s overselling it,” Visser said. “I mean, he’s just had one win and that was against Costa. Whittaker had two, and he’s going for number three now. So my honest opinion is that next for us will be Whittaker in Sydney in February. I think he’s going to beat Khamzat [Chimaev] and I honestly think that they’re going to give him the shot.”

Visser cited Team Whittaker’s ability to gameplan as the key to beating Khamzat, plus Khamzat’s shaky performance against Kamaru Usman across three rounds. With five rounds to work, the South African coach believes “The Reaper” can finish “Borz.” But if Chimaev wins … well, maybe the UFC goes back to Sean Strickland for Australia after all.

“I think [UFC are] going to play the play their cards a little bit different and we’re going to fight Khamzat later,” he said. “But so far the only thing that’s confirmed is we will be fighting in February in Sydney.”

We wouldn’t put too much stock in Visser’s elaborate matchmaking of his student, but you can’t deny that giving Whittaker a title shot in Sydney makes sense if he beats Chimaev in October. That’s a pretty big ‘if,’ though, so let’s hold off on any expectations until UFC 308 rolls around.