Once Pereira learned that Du Plessis had called him out in the cage, he tracked the middleweight champion down and demanded a fight.
Alex Pereira has responded to Dricus Du Plessis’ callout after the South African’s big main event win at UFC 312.
Du Plessis soundly beat Sean Strickland in their rematch, taking a unanimous decision with 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46 scores (highlights here). During his post fight interview, he took the time to challenge Strickland’s cornerman and 205 pound champion Alex Pereira.
“Since [Pereira] is standing directly across the octagon: ‘Is there no-one else? Is there no one else?’”
Alex Pereira just called out Dricus Du Plessis for a super fight at 205. He said he ran into him backstage and took issue to his “Is there no one else comments” and said “I’m here” and wants to make the fight happen. #UFC312 pic.twitter.com/BV9oBRj4Ws
— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma) February 9, 2025
That’s a quote from the movie Troy: after Achilles (played by Brad Pitt) shanks an enemy army’s champion with ease, he walks up to them and challenges another to step forward. Du Plessis didn’t quite cut through Strickland as easily as Achilles did, but he did walk forward and yell the words at Pereira with equal boldness.
Pereira didn’t respond … because it turns out he didn’t even realize Du Plessis was talking to him.
“Of course he don’t understood, he doesn’t speak English,” Pereira’s coach and translator Plinio Cruz told Full Send MMA. “Then he came and asked me what happened. I told him he basically challenged him.”
“So luckily we were walking down, Dricus had the belt, and Alex came to him and said ‘I heard you called me out.’ He goes ‘Yes,’ Alex says ‘Make it happen at 205.’ Dricus looked, thought a little bit, and said ‘Deal.’ So let’s see now if he runs back with his word, if he keep it up. Let’s see that superfight happen.”
First Pereira will have to deal with his current opponent, Magomed Ankalaev, whom he faces at UFC 313 on March 8th. Then he said it’s Du Plessis’ turn.
“Definitely,” Pereira said of the match-up. “March 8th, man, we’re focused, right? But this happened, man, I didn’t want to let it go unnoticed. So I asked if it was for me, he said it was, we shook hands and it was agreed.”
Now it will take the UFC to agree, and they may not be interested. There’s Khamzat Chimaev waiting in the wings for his middleweight title shot, and all indications point to the UFC granting him next. But considering his travel and health issues, you never know how things could shake out.