Despite Feud, Dricus Du Plessis Backs Alex Pereira To Avenge Title Loss At UFC 320

Dricus Du Plessis, the former UFC 185-pound king, has had a fair amount of bad blood with former LHW king Alex Pereira. At one point, ‘Poatan’ even teased coming back down to middleweight limits, to give this rivalry a shape. Now, the Brazilian has other assignments and will look to get back his gold at UFC 320.

Alex Pereira stuffed 12 TD attempts but could not muster sufficient momentum against Magomed Ankalaev, who won the belt from him. This time, he has promised differently, that he’d be able to retort the clinch/fence-side domination and knock him out.

UFC middleweight Dricus Du Plessis recently faced a similar fate and was dominated by newly crowned champion Khamzat Chimaev. With redemption and title on his mind, DDP now backs Pereira to bag the title back at UFC 320: Ankalaev vs. Pereira 2.

Team Du Plessis previously stated Poatan was abysmal in the clinch and had minimal ground skills; Poatan took notice and made teases after UFC 297. After cornering Sean Strickland vs. DDP at UFC 312: Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2, Pereira even made a call-up and challenged him. A numbered card later, Alex Pereira would lose his gold.

There has been a fair amount of feud between the two, and the Afrikaner would even go to 205-pound limits rather than Pereira having to make a haggard and abysmal cut down.

Dricus Du Plessis says Alex Pereira will regain his UFC light heavyweight title against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320

“The striking was never the problem, it was that he got smothered. It’s not going to be hard to figure out the clinch this time. I’m putting my money on Pereira” pic.twitter.com/s3EJuT4NiB

— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma) September 30, 2025

However, now, neither holds on to their belts and are on different trajectories. Hence, DDP has backed the rival to work out the challenges of the clinch and get this one in the bag at UFC 320. The 31-year-old himself had his 9-fight streak foiled at UFC 319: Du Plessis vs. Chimaev and he himself has a similar trajectory from here.

Team Dricus Du Plessis took digs at Alex Pereira for getting ‘exposed’ at UFC 313

In the recent past, that prize fight against brand champ Alex Pereira was being eyed by then-reigning 185-pound kingpin Dricus Du Plessis. Poatan had a quick turnaround for his three-time, 3 KO title defense campaign in 2024 and was a clear Fighter of the Year contender. Pereira had also teased a move down to the 185-pound weight class to challenge the champion, where he once dominated.

However, in his fourth defense, the strap was forfeited to new-champ Magomed Ankalaev by Pereira in somehwat of a one-sided matchup. Thus, the South African fighter shut down the possibility of a future PPV title scrap between the two champions. His coach tripled down on it, billing Pereira as stagnant.

Look, look [at] how bad he [Alex] looked in his last fight. Ankalaev just outplayed him — The only thing Pereira does is he waits and waits for you to make a mistake…then he hooks you. What else can he do? And that stupid low low of his. He’s shit in the clinch other than hooks, he’s shit on the floor, he’s shit in grappling. Well done to Ankalaev for his gameplan…shut him out.

Morne Visser to Denis Shkuratov for the ‘Submission Radio’ Show for SBNation Network (🎥: @SubmissionRadio on YT)

Morne Visser praised ‘Big Ank’ for his solid game plan and for overpowering Pereira with his good balance of striking. Despite his exemplary spatial management and all-around striking, Pereira, the kickboxer, delayed excessively before executing a hook.

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