Dricus du Plessis turns down UFC one-night 205 tournament
His coach says the UFC pitched four light heavyweights in one night, with a shot at Carlos Ulberg on the line, but the priority is winning back the middleweight belt.
The UFC offered Dricus du Plessis a spot in a four-man light heavyweight tournament held in a single night, with the winner earning a shot at champion Carlos Ulberg, and the answer was no. His head coach, Morne Visser, revealed the offer in an interview with Fight Forecast, reported on Wednesday, October 21, by Sherdog and MMA News.
According to Visser, the proposal came about three weeks ago. He turned it down because the former champion’s priority is to return at middleweight, win the belt back and defend it at least once before moving up. The UFC had not commented as of publication.
How the light heavyweight tournament would have worked
Per the coach’s account, the field would have been du Plessis, Jiri Prochazka, Magomed Ankalaev and Navajo Stirling. All four would fight on the same night in two bouts, and the two winners would then meet to decide Ulberg’s next challenger.
The New Zealander won the vacant title in April at UFC 327 with a first-round knockout of Prochazka. He has been recovering from knee surgery since, leaving the top of the division on hold.
Light heavyweight has a new look in 2026. Former champion Alex Pereira moved up to heavyweight chasing a title in a third division, as VF Comunica reported in the story about his complaint against the UFC over Gane vs. Hokit.
Without the tournament, the UFC went another way: Prochazka and Stirling headline UFC Qatar on November 21 in Doha in a five-round bout. Ankalaev has no fight scheduled.
Why du Plessis’ coach said no
Visser said putting on weight is the easy part, and that adapting to a new division takes time. “It took me a year to get Dricus from welterweight to middleweight,” he said, recalling his fighter’s previous move up.
The plan, he said, follows an order: “We want our middleweight belt back and we want to defend it once.” Light heavyweight would come after that, and Visser treated it as a given: “That is 100% the plan.”
Du Plessis is 24-3 in MMA and ranked No. 2 at middleweight, according to the UFC’s official website. He lost the belt to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 in August 2025 and got back in the win column in July with a unanimous decision over Kamaru Usman. Visser expects him back in late February or March.
His return shakes up the line at 185 pounds. Sean Strickland is the champion, and du Plessis has beaten him twice. Brazil’s Caio Borralho faces Yousri Belgaroui at UFC 334 on November 14 in New York, a fight in which Glover Teixeira sees Borralho’s opponent improving on the ground.
One-night tournaments and Jiu-Jitsu at UFC 1
The rejected idea echoes the UFC’s own origins. The promotion was born as an eight-man, one-night tournament designed to show what Jiu-Jitsu could do against other styles, as VF Comunica explains in its history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
At the first event, on November 12, 1993, in Denver, Royce Gracie beat three opponents in the same night, all by submission. In the final, he finished Dutchman Gerard Gordeau with a rear-naked choke.
In that format, finishing early is gold, because every minute saved in the Octagon is energy left for the next fight. Thirty-three years later, the format came back to the UFC’s table, this time with a title shot on the line, and ran into a coach who prefers the longer road.
Do you think Dricus du Plessis made the right call, or would a one-night, four-man tournament be the best way to pick Ulberg’s next challenger? Tell us in the comments.
Read more:
- Alex Pereira accuses UFC of manipulating fans to book Gane vs. Hokit
- Belgaroui adds ground work before Borralho, Glover says
- Royce vs. Wallid: behind the scenes of the match that drew 7,000 people to the Copacabana arena
