Ex-UFC fighter, champion now in another promotion reacts to Dricus du Plessis laughing off Belal Muhammad's chances in the middleweight division

Dricus du Plessis and Belal Muhammad have been taking shots at each other in an emerging feud. Muhammad has termed the middleweight division one of the "easiest" in the UFC in the aftermath of du Plessis' second title defense at UFC 312.

The reigning welterweight champion's comments evoked a sharp response by 'Stillknocks'. Now a former UFC fighter, who currently competes in another promotion, has reacted to du Plessis' comments on Muhammad's potential jump to the middleweight division.

The 31-year-old du Plessis was recently interviewed by MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, who asked him about Muhammad's desire to switch to the middleweight division. The South African responded:

"I like how he acts as if he has a choice to go up to 185, like the UFC will never let him. If he wants to he'll have to vacate his belt 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 you think that... He hasn't even defended his belt once. He's definitely better on Twitter than he is in fights."

Check out Dricus du Plessis' comments on Belal Muhammad below:

Former UFC heavyweight and the reigning BKFC heavyweight champion Ben Rothwell responded to du Plessis' comments after Helwani posted the excerpt on his X account:

Ben Rothwell's comment [Screenshot courtesy: @arielhelwani's post on X]

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Dricus du Plessis discusses loopholes in Khamzat Chimaev's game with Ariel Helwani

Dricus du Plessis is coming off an impressive title defense over Sean Strickland and is already ready for his next challenge. Meanwhile, Khamzat Chimaev has been training his guns at 'Stillknocks' in pursuit of challenging him for the belt.

Chimaev finished the former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker with a dominant first-round submission at UFC 308. The No.3-ranked middleweight contender has been actively calling out du Plessis through his social media accounts. During his aforementioned conversation with Ariel Helwani, du Plessis discussed shortcomings in Chimaev's game:

"Absolutely, that's the way it goes. He goes for that first round and then he's really hard to deal with in the beginning of the fight but so am I, and once we get there, that's the thing. When you go that hard in Round 2, 3, 4, 5 comes, you still have to be there and I've proven that I'm there in those rounds. So, that is 100% a situation where I see, if he can last that long he has to realize every round is gonna come out, I'm still gonna be there."

Check out Dricus du Plessis' comments on Khamzat Chimaev below (16:57):