Dricus Du Plessis Declines 205-Pound Tournament, Keeping His Betting Baseline at Middleweight

Dricus Du Plessis is not rushing the move to light heavyweight.

Bloody Elbow reported that his coach, Morne Visser, rejected a UFC proposal made three weeks earlier for Du Plessis to join a four-man, 205-pound pool with Jiri Prochazka, Magomed Ankalaev and Navajo Stirling, citing a preference for a gradual weight transition and another pursuit of the middleweight championship.

That decision carries more analytical weight than a routine piece of matchmaking news. Du Plessis has built an 11-fight UFC sample at middleweight, producing enough round-level evidence to define how he wins, where his defensive risks sit and which prop categories best capture his style. The immediate jump to 205 pounds reported by Bloody Elbow would have weakened the relevance of that baseline without supplying any replacement data.

For now, bettors can continue evaluating Du Plessis as a 185-pound fighter rather than guessing how added mass, larger opponents and a different preparation process would alter his output.

The refusal preserves a proven middleweight profile

Du Plessis is 24-3 overall and 10-1 across the 11 bouts in our UFC archive. He has never been finished in that sample. His 10 victories split into four knockouts or TKOs, two submissions and four decisions, giving him a 60 percent finish rate on wins across a meaningful—but still division-specific—body of work.

The recent pattern is less finish-heavy than the full record. Four of his last five fights reached the scorecards, while the other ended with his fourth-round submission of Israel Adesanya. Du Plessis then went 25 minutes in three consecutive appearances: a unanimous decision over Sean Strickland, a unanimous decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev and a unanimous decision over Kamaru Usman in July.