DDP Challenges ‘Poatan’: ‘Is There No One Else?’

After beating Sean Strickland, Du Plessis took a shot at cornerman and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

It’s not often that Alex Pereira gets shown up in the cage, but Dricus Du Plessis managed to do it after his UFC 312 win in Sydney, Australia.

Du Plessis beat Sean Strickland soundly in their second meeting, breaking the American’s nose in the fourth round and earning 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46 scores from the judges. It wasn’t pure domination, but the South African champion kept his game tight and outworked his opponent to take a decisive victory.

Much was made leading into this fight of Strickland having light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in his corner. “Poatan” may not speak English, but there was some hope that maybe he’d lend some aura or extra gusto to Sean’s arsenal. Instead, Pereira was a non-factor as coach Eric Nicksick was left to plead with his fighter to up his output through the early rounds and go for broke in the fifth.

That didn’t happen. You have to give Strickland props for keeping his composure after Du Plessis broke his nose, but he went right back to the same infrequent jab game that had been losing him the fight. There was no “Chama” moment.

Following the fight, Pereira showed no emotion as Du Plessis celebrated in the cage. After past DDP wins, “Poatan” had sent out some pretty angry tweets. Coming into UFC 312, Strickland had said Alex just hated Du Plessis’ guts. But the cameras never caught any emotion from the famously stone-faced 205 pound champion, not even when “Stillknocks” challenged him.

Du Plessis had quoted a line from the movie Troy when Strickland challenged him to keep the fight standing, saying “There are no pacts between lions and men.”

“This is another one from Achilles,” Du Plessis said during his post-fight speech with Daniel Cormier. “And since [Pereira] is standing directly across the octagon: ‘Is there no-one else?’”

As fun as a fight between Alex Pereira and Dricus Du Plessis would be, there is someone else: Khamzat Chimaev, who wasn’t able to show up in Australia but may be able to enter the United States soon. If he gets his travel situation sorted, he’ll be next for Dricus Du Plessis.

As for Alex Pereira, he needs to get back to training for Magomed Ankalaev, who he’ll face on March 8th in Las Vegas, Nevada.