DU PLESSIS: BELT BACK FIRST — THEN I'M TAKING 205 TOO

The former middleweight champ mapped out a two-title raid: reclaim the 185 crown, defend it, then conquer light heavyweight.

"I want to get my belt back and eventually go up to 205 and go test myself there, and I'm certain that I will be a champion."

Dricus Du Plessis is not easing his way back into the picture. The former UFC middleweight champion laid out the whole plan on "The Sias du Plessis Show": take back the 185-pound title Khamzat Chimaev ripped away from him, defend it, and then move up to light heavyweight and take that one too.

Du Plessis (24-3 MMA, 10-1 UFC) lost the belt to Chimaev at UFC 319, then rebounded with a big win over former champion Kamaru Usman in July. His head coach Morne Visser has ruled out a proposed 205-pound tournament and is targeting a February-March 2027 return. Du Plessis sounds like a man who considers it a formality.

Step one: the belt comes home

"I want that belt back, get a defense, and see if we do another one if there's any fight that makes sense," Du Plessis said. "Fighting for the belt, that is definitely — I'm fighting for the belt. I'm getting my belt back."

"I'm certain that I will be a champion. I'm big enough for that division, and I'm certain I can be champion at that division, as well."

— Dricus Du Plessis, on "The Sias du Plessis Show"

This is not new territory for him. Du Plessis was a two-division champion in KSW before he ever reached the UFC, and he wants to run the same play on the biggest stage in the sport. The timeline is loose — "Not necessarily in 2027, but if the opportunity is there, it's there" — but the destination is not.

45 pounds of motivation

Part of the logic is simple physics. Du Plessis is a giant middleweight, and he said the quiet part out loud.

"In pounds, it's 45 pounds that I'm cutting," he said. "Even more sometimes from where I walk around outside of a camp to fight. It's ridiculous. It's crazy."

A man cutting more than 45 pounds to make 185 does not dream about staying there forever. And the 205-pound door is already creaking open: former light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev has revealed there has been talk of a Du Plessis fight at 205.

First, though, comes the debt. "You're only as good as your last fight, and to be a loser is not in my cards," Du Plessis said. "I don't like that." Chimaev took his belt, his zero in the UFC, and his division. Stillknocks wants all of it back — then he wants a second throne on top of it.

Can he get past a division where Strickland holds the belt and Chimaev sits at No. 1? 👇