Dricus du Plessis has consistently expressed interest in potential champion vs. champion bouts since becoming the king of the UFC’s middleweight division in early 2024. But when it comes to the champion below him at welterweight, Belal Muhammad, “DDP” couldn’t feel any less threatened.
Speaking recently to Barstool Chicago, Muhammad floated the idea of moving up to “the easiest weight class” middleweight in order to allow his friend and occasional training partner, UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, to attempt double-champ status at 170 pounds. Muhammad said taking over the 185-pound division would be “no problem” — aside from Khamzat Chimaev — and noted that UFC 312’s recent title bout reinforced to him that both du Plessis and former champ Sean Strickland “suck.”
Responding to Muhammad’s comments Tuesday on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” du Plessis was amused, to say the least.
“Belal Muhammad, I can’t even remember the way he fights. Has he ever finished anyone?” du Plessis asked, poking fun at Muhammad’s “Remember the Name” nickname.
“I like how he acted like he had a choice to ever go up to 185. The UFC will never let him. If he wanted to, he would have to abandon his belt, give up his belt, vacate, and go up to 185, and there’s no way they give him a direct title shot. There’s no way. The UFC doesn’t even like Belal Muhammad. So what makes him think that? He hasn’t even defended his belt once. He’s definitely better on Twitter than he is in fights, I have to say that.”
Du Plessis and Muhammad both reached the summits of their respective divisions in 2024, with Muhammad’s coming when he dominated Leon Edwards to win a unanimous decision in July. Muhammad was scheduled to make his first title defense at UFC 310 in December, however a bone infection in his toe forced him to withdraw from his main-event bout against undefeated challenger Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Du Plessis recently made the second defense of his UFC middleweight belt, defeating the aforementioned Strickland in a lopsided unanimous decision at UFC 312 in early February. The bout was a rematch of their 2024 championship encounter, which du Plessis also won via decision.
Both champions have been perfect during their current hot streaks. Du Plessis is 9-0 under the UFC banner, while Muhammad is unbeaten over his past 11 Octagon appearances.
Despite that, du Plessis doesn’t see how his counterpart would be competitive.
“That would be unfair. If I fight Belal Muhammad, it would be unfair,” he said with a laugh. “100%, have you seen the size of the man? What is he going to do? Is he going to get somebody to help him? Is he going to sit on somebody’s neck? How is it going to work? He’s the smallest. I couldn’t believe that he’s a 170 [pound fighter] when I saw him, I couldn’t believe that he fights at 170.
“I step on his head and it’s over — that’s how that fight goes.”
A rebooked Muhammad vs. Rakhmonov title tilt is expected to be the next move made atop the 170-pound weight class.
In the meantime, Muhammad still has ample time to take jabs at his peers, and he wasted zero of it firing back at du Plessis after hearing the middleweight champion’s dismissive remarks.
“He can barely walk without tripping over his own feet,” Muhammad wrote on social media. “He ain’t touching me.”
Muhammad followed that up by posting an old clip of du Plessis awkwardly failing to take down Brad Tavares with lateral drop from a 2022 bout, where “DDP” instead landed in bottom position.
“This guy’s gonna beat me,” Muhammad wrote, adding a crying laughing emoji.
