Chael Sonnen Explains Why Dricus Du Plessis Won't Get Title Shot After UFC 293

"The sequel generally does better than the original."

Drew Beaupré | Sep 12, 2023

Chael Sonnen Explains Why Dricus Du Plessis Won't Get Title Shot After UFC 293 /

Chael Sonnen knows that Dricus Du Plessis deserves a shot at the middleweight belt, but the former UFC title challenger doesn’t expect the South African to get the first crack at newly-crowned champion Sean Strickland.

Strickland entered the main event of last weekend’s UFC 293 as a massive underdog to Israel Adesanya and pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history when he soundly out struck the champion to earn a clear unanimous decision victory.

The massive upset has now created all kinds of options for the UFC’s next middleweight title fight, and Sonnen argues that an immediate rematch between Strickland and Adesanya makes the most sense.

“I’m doing an immediate rematch, for sure,” Sonnen said on The MMA Hour. “I’m sure [Strickland and Adesanya] did a fine piece of business and I’m sure next time will be even better, the sequel generally does better than the original. But none of them will do what Du Plessis and Izzy had building…It just seems like that was the one to try to preserve.”

Sean Strickland at UFC 293. — (Jasmin Frank/USA TODAY Sports)

VIDEO: Sean Strickland Shocks Israel Adesanya, Wins UFC Title

Setting up that highly-anticipated matchup between Adesanya and Du Plessis would obviously be dependent on “The Last Stylebender” besting Strickland in a rematch, but Sonnen also went on to note that there’s a huge middleweight bout coming up that could keep “Stillknocks” from his shot at UFC gold.

“No matter what happens – I mean if they go and do a rematch, as you buy yourself a little bit of time to exhale and get the plans together, [Khamzat] Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa just became the number one contender’s match…Now because you got a new champion at top, Strickland vs. Paulo works all day long, Strickland vs. Chimaev – plus they’ve trained together – it works all day long. That’s gonna be a number one contender’s match, and Du Plessis is gonna get forgot yet again.”

The matchup between Chimaev and Costa is scheduled to take place at UFC 294 next month, and although “Borz” will be competing in the UFC’s middleweight division for the first time it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the promotion rush the unbeaten fighter into a title fight if he’s able to get past the #6-ranked Brazilian.

UFC President Dana White shared the same sentiment about Adesanya getting a rematch, "I think you do the rematch, absolutely," White told reporters at the UFC 293 post-fight conference. "The rematch is interesting."

White believes Adesanya's immediate rematch with Alex Pereira affected his performance at UFC 293, which justifies another shot at Strickland:

"[Rematching Pereira] could be the thing too. When you think about --- you're going into the Pereira fights - such a big fight - you know, and you've been in there with this guy so many times, and then you overlook Strickland."

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Published Sep 12, 2023