Kamaru Usman explains why he would favor Alex Pereira in potential bout against Dricus du Plessis

Kamaru Usman recently weighed in on a hypothetical Alex Pereira vs. Dricus du Plessis bout and explained why he would favor the Brazilian to get his hand raised. He noted that the South African still has more to prove before he can convince him otherwise.

'Stillknocks' earned his second consecutive middleweight title defense with a unanimous decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 312. The South African then issued a unique callout to 'Poatan', who was in Strickland's corner, and expressed interest in challenging him at 205 pounds after fighting Khamzat Chimaev.

During the latest episode of his Pound 4 Pound podcast, 'The Nigerian Nightmare' analyzed the potential champion vs. champion clash after co-host Henry Cejudo backed the middleweight king. Usman disagreed, backing 'Poatan' in the potential clash.

Usman mentioned that he's still skeptical of du Plessis' chances because Pereira has defeated several top-ranked opponents, but he would change his stance if the South African continues racking up title defenses:

"I don't know if I favor [du Plessis] against Alex Pereira. That's blasphemous that you said that...I wanna see those two fights first, Khamzat Chimaev, potentially Nassourdine Imavov, then potentially move up because at that point you can say, 'I've gone through that top five in that division. I deserve to move up.'"

Check out Kamaru Usman's comments regarding Alex Pereira vs. Dricus du Plessis below:

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Henry Cejudo explains why he would favor Dricus du Plessis against Alex Pereira

Although Kamaru Usman was confident in Alex Pereira edging out Dricus du Plessis in a potential bout, Henry Cejudo had an opposing view.

During the aforementioned clip, Cejudo mentioned that du Plessis is a more well rounded competitor than Pereira and would favor him to get his hand raised:

"I'll definitely put my money with 'DDP'. [Du Plessis] stylistically is a problem, dude. And I know 'DDP's' gonna go in there and fu**ing wrestle. I think with the grappling, that could be very problematic, but there's only one thing that I will say, he will need to be careful because Alex Pereira does a really good job of countering and there's a lot of sloppy things that 'DDP' does."

Check out the full episode featuring Henry Cejudo comments regarding a potential Alex Pereira vs. Dricus du Plessis bout below: