Chael Sonnen explains why the UFC won’t want to give Dricus Du Plessis the next middleweight title shot: “That isn’t how it works”

Chael Sonnen has explained why UFC middleweight contender Dricus du Plessis won’t fight for gold next.

‘Stillknocks’ has been out of action since his title-eliminator matchup with Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July. There, Dricus du Plessis earned the biggest win of his career, scoring a second-round knockout win over ‘The Reaper’. Following the fight, he went face-to-face with Israel Adesanya for a highly controversial face-off.

However, due to an injury, it was instead Sean Stickland who faced ‘The Last Stylebender’ this month. At UFC 293, ‘Tarzan’ scored an upset win over Adesanya, and quickly received a callout from Dricus du Plessis. However, Dana White has yet to confirm that he will receive the next title shot. Chael Sonnen believes that he knows why.

‘The Bad Guy’ discussed the situation during a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel. There, Chael Sonnen opined that because Dricus du Plessis didn’t show up to UFC 293, that eliminated his championship hopes for the time being. Plus, it would take a long time to book a potential Israel Adesanya fight.

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(via Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

“[Dricus] Du Plessis could get the opportunity,” Chael Sonnen stated on his YouTube channel. “He’s just not gonna be the one they want to give the opportunity [to],” Sonnen said. “There’s not anybody on the decision-making level of the UFC that’s gonna go, ‘Okay Du Plessis, we’re gonna give you an opportunity to compete with a guy who is willing to compete against a guy [Adesanya] in an opportunity that was supposed to be yours and you declined.’ That isn’t how it works. (h/t MMA News)

“Not to mention, you would have a much bigger problem if Du Plessis was to win. A really big middleweight fight right now is Du Plessis versus Adesanya… If you were to put Du Plessis against Sean Strickland and Du Plessis wins, you’re now gonna have a hard time making Du Plessis versus Adesanya. Getting Adesanya back to the belt in a fashion that doesn’t go through Sean Strickland isn’t going to be the ideal path.”

What do you make of these comments about Dricus du Plessis? Do you agree with Chael Sonnen?