Dricus Du Plessis' team wants Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 312 in February 2025: "Prepare to be amazed once again"

UFC middleweight superstar Khamzat Chimaev put the entire division on notice once again. At UFC 308 last weekend, 'Borz' utterly obliterated former UFC middleweight champ Robert 'The Reaper' Whittaker. He did so by submitting Whittaker without taking a single hit.

With the entire MMA world eyeing what's next for the undefeated Chechen warrior, it's not surprising that the division's current champion, Dricus du Plessis, is taking notice. He's doing more than that as his coach, Morne Visser, is saying that he and his team want Khamzat Chimaev next year, ideally at UFC 312.

Visser posted an Instagram photo naming UFC fighters who debuted at the same time and are champions today, ending the caption with the Chimaev callout:

"3 athletes that started their UFC careers around the same time @tomaspinallofficial @dricusduplessis @iliatopuria 3 world champions, that will stay champions for a really long time! Massive congrats to @iliatopuria on a phenomenal performance. We want Khamzat [Chimaev] next in February. Prepare to be amazed once again."

This is quite interesting as it's largely accepted that the next challenger to du Plessis' belt is former UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland. Du Plessis and Strickland fought earlier this year in which the South African narrowly beat the American via a split decision for the title.

Let's see what the UFC brass thinks of this new direction by the champion.

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Daniel Cormier hints at Khamzat Chimaev being chosen over Sean Strickland to challenge for the belt next

It seems this new plan concocted by Dricus du Plessis' team might come to fruition after all. In a recent YouTube video uploaded by Daniel Cormier, the former two-division champ speculated that the UFC bosses are reassessing the UFC middleweight title picture after Khamzat Chimaev's dominant finish.

Cormier, who was commentating on the fights at UFC 308, said:

"[Chimaev] took [Whittaker] down, choked him, and broke his jaw. Broke his jaw with a squeeze from a rear naked choke. It was nuts to see him do that to a guy that once again was [one of the guys] in the generation before him... If you're Sean Strickland, that result worries you because Mick Maynard sitting right next to me jumps up runs to Dana [White] and they start talking to Hunter [Campbell]. Then Dana immediately runs over to Chimaev and talks to him. That's scary to a guy that's considered the No. 1 contender."

Check out Daniel Cormier's comments (5:20):