UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis isn’t taking any guff from Khamzat Chimaev.

It emerged this week from a report by veteran combat sports journalist Kevin Iole that Du Plessis has sustained an injury which may prevent him from competing in a rumoured title defence against the unbeaten Chimaev which was touted as serving as the chief headliner to this summer’s annual ‘International Fight Week’ in Las Vegas in late June.

It has since been suggested that the 17-1 Brazilian Caio Borralho will instead fight Chimaev this summer at UFC 317 on June 28, though no official word has come from UFC brass as to the status of the hypothetical and still unconfirmed bout with the event set to take place in a little over two months time.

Chimaev appeared to reference the issue on social media, writing: ‘This guy biggest bullsh*tter” though it remains unclear as to exactly what the Chechen grappler was intimating and whether it was directed at Du Plessis or at the initial report.

Either way, Chimaev’s post appears to have drawn a response from the UFC’s 185-pound kingpin Du Plessis — as he posted a comparison of his activity versus Chimaev’s inside the UFC cage across the past few years.

“Let’s take a look at the last +-2.5years and tell me who’s bullsh*tter,” Du Plessis wrote, accompanied by images showing his winning stream compared to that of Chimaev’s, who has withdrawn from fights on several occasions due to injury and illness.

Du Plessis has won each of his nine fights in the cage since his debut in October 2020. Chimaev, by comparison, has won eight straight since making his debut in the summer of 2020. However, Chimaev’s first three came in a 66-day span — including two fights in ten days — early in his UFC career. He has fought just five times since October 2021.