Dricus du Plessis’ coach has speculated about why Alex Pereira supposedly hates his longtime student. Visser suggested that Pereira’s alleged hatred and obsession with “Stillknocks” stemmed from jealousy.
Dricus Du Plessis’ Coach Morne Visser Expounds Upon Alex Pereira’s Alleged Jealousy for “Stillknocks”
Brazil’s Alex Pereira is an ex-Glory Kickboxing middleweight and light heavyweight titleholder and a former UFC Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Champion. South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis is the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion.
Before Pereira’s light heavyweight title loss against Magomed Ankalaev in March 2025, the Brazilian had expressed interest in returning to middleweight to dethrone du Plessis. Alternatively, du Plessis had affirmed that he’d rather move up in weight and dethrone Pereira.
However, “Poatan” was outpointed and dethroned by Ankalaev, and the potential Pereira vs. du Plessis match fell apart. Presently, Pereira is expected to rematch Ankalaev in Aug. 2025. Meanwhile, du Plessis is expected to fight Khamzat Chimaev.
During a recent interview with “Submission Radio,” du Plessis’ coach Morne Visser seemingly referenced the war of words between his star pupil and Pereira.
Regarding Pereira’s apparent obsession with fighting du Plessis, Visser said, “Well, we really wanted to fight him. So I think what he dislikes about Dricus is that Dricus can fight anywhere. And you know MMA is a man’s sport. There’s a lot of ego involved. So I think he was just jealous about Dricus being an all-round fighter. And we’ve proved it time and again. We’ve finished guys on the floor. We’ve finished guys [in] the stand-up in Dricus’ career. And Pereira has never done that.”
He continued, “Look how bad he looked in his last fight.” Visser suggested that Pereira was thoroughly outworked, even outdone in the boxing and kickboxing departments, by Ankalaev. He disagreed with those calling that fight boring, adding that he felt it was a brilliant matchup wherein the Dagestani and his team crafted and stuck with a great game plan.
Reaffirming that Pereira wasn’t as well-rounded a fighter as du Plessis, Visser explained that the Brazilian only waits for an opponent to enter his striking range and/or make a mistake and then catches them with his famed left hook. He implied that “Poatan” merely utilizes his low kicks and doesn’t have much else to use against his foes. He added that du Plessis wanted to fight Pereira primarily because of the latter being a high-profile fighter.
Visser added, “He’s sh** in the clinch. He’s sh** on the floor. He’s sh** in grappling … Ankalaev did a pretty good job of out-boxing him, out-kickboxing him. So, well done to Ankalaev. The hate comes from jealousy. That’s all it is.”
“Dricus always laughed about it because we just wanted to fight that big of a name. That’s the only reason why we want to fight him – no hatred, no jealousy, nothing to be jealous about. We just wanted to fight him because, look, he was the face of the UFC for a very long time. And he’s an incredible athlete.”
Visser explained du Plessis beating a multi-sport champion like Pereira, who’s eyeing and could possibly secure boxing championship glory too, would be a great accomplishment, “Not just fight him, I mean, beat him, finish him. But I think that’s past it.”