Drix du Plessis’ coach, Morne Visser, recently gave his opinion on the middleweight champion’s possible future opponents.
Du Plessis defended his title on Saturday with a fourth-round submission victory over Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. “Stilnox” and Adesanya have long been at odds over legitimacy as the “King of Africa,” but appeared to make amends after Saturday’s bout.
Visser said he was relieved that peace had come to Africa, and revealed that he and Adesanya had already discussed a possible rematch when they met, and that Adesanya would be the perfect opponent for a potential UFC card in South Africa during du Plessis’ reign.
“There is peace in Africa right now, and that is a good thing,” Visser told Submission Radio. “When I met Izzy before, I told him I believe there is a story to be told about pursuing peace in Africa. [a
UFC card in] “One day in South Africa. I don’t think it’s too soon. But I told Izzy that he’s the only one who deserves to fight in Africa. So there will be a rematch, but there are only two Africans who deserve to fight in Africa. There’s no one else.”
Meanwhile, former middleweight and current light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is also planning to return to 185 pounds to challenge du Plessis. Visser would certainly be interested in a fight with Pereira, but not at middleweight. Visser would like du Plessis to move up to light heavyweight and believes the UFC would approve the request. Pereira is scheduled to defend his title against Khalil Rountree at UFC 307 in October, but Visser is hopeful “Poitan” will make a rapid recovery by the end of the year.
“I told him [Pereira] The joy of going down to 185 [pounds]”… We’re just going to go up,” Visser said, “because we don’t want to take him down, and then he’ll say he had to go down, he was tired, or whatever. So we’re going up. UFC will be OK with that. If that’s what he says, then we’re going up because I know Dricus’ game. We’re not going to wait for him to go down, we’re going up… [Pereira’s] We are planning to fight in October, so I really hope that UFC will give us this blessing in December as well.”
