Kamaru Usman believes beating Dricus Du Plessis at UFC Oklahoma City should leave the promotion with two logical options for his next fight: Sean Strickland at middleweight or Islam Makhachev at welterweight.
Asked during media day what should follow a victory over Du Plessis, Usman first named reigning middleweight champion Strickland. “I mean, that makes sense. That’s pretty easy,” he said before adding, “It’s either Sean Strickland or Islam, if Islam is still the champion, which I assume he will be,” according to MMA Fighting.
Strickland currently holds the 185-pound championship, while Makhachev is the welterweight titleholder in the division Usman once controlled.
Usman must first defeat former middleweight champion Du Plessis in their five-round main event Saturday, July 18, at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
Sean Strickland Would Be a Rematch Nine Years Later
A fight with Strickland would keep Usman at middleweight and give him an immediate opportunity to become a two-division UFC champion.
Usman defeated Strickland by unanimous decision in a welterweight bout at UFC 210 in April 2017. Strickland later moved to middleweight and is now in his second reign as the division’s champion after defeating Khamzat Chimaev by split decision at UFC 328 in May.
Du Plessis defeated Strickland by split decision to capture the middleweight title in January 2024, then won their February 2025 rematch by unanimous decision. Du Plessis subsequently lost the championship to Chimaev before Strickland reclaimed it.
Islam Makhachev Remains Usman’s Welterweight Target
Usman called for a fight with Makhachev after defeating Joaquin Buckley by unanimous decision in June 2025. The victory ended a three-fight losing streak and marked Usman’s first win in nearly four years, but the UFC did not move him directly into a welterweight title fight. Usman said he initially expected the Makhachev matchup to be next but acknowledged that the promotion preferred the Du Plessis fight.
“The company kind of has a say, a big say, in this, and they felt this was an opportunity,” Usman said. He rejected the suggestion that moving to middleweight represented an easier route, citing contenders including Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho and Jared Cannonier alongside the crowded field at 170 pounds. Makhachev won the welterweight championship by defeating Jack Della Maddalena in November 2025.
Usman Still Wants a Place in the Champ-Champ Club
Usman held the welterweight championship from 2019 until 2022 and successfully defended it five times. A title at 185 pounds would make him one of the UFC fighters to have won championships in two divisions.
“There’s still one club I can’t get into yet,” Usman told TMZ Sports. “You want to be remembered as not, ‘Oh, that guy was a champion.’ No, you want to be remembered as that guy that was a champion here and a champion there.”
Usman’s only previous UFC appearance at middleweight came against Chimaev in October 2023. He accepted that fight on 10 days’ notice and lost by majority decision.
Du Plessis weighed 185.5 pounds Friday, while Usman came in at 186. Their UFC Oklahoma City main event streams on Paramount+ as part of the main card beginning at 8 p.m. ET.