{"id":55067,"date":"2025-08-09T09:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T09:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55067\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T09:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T09:28:09","slug":"former-ufc-star-believes-khamzat-chimaevs-intelligent-training-makes-dricus-du-plessis-fight-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55067\/","title":{"rendered":"Former UFC star believes Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s \u2018intelligent\u2019 training makes Dricus Du Plessis fight interesting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The cardio of Khamzat Chimaev has been a big discussion ahead of UFC 319.<\/p>\n

\u2018Borz\u2019 has become synonymous with his quick first-round finishes, but has made fights close when they have gone to the judges\u2019 scorecards.<\/p>\n

His opponent, UFC<\/a> middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis<\/a>, is known for his ability to go the full five rounds if necessary with an impeccable gas tank.<\/p>\n

\"KhamzatPhoto by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

While a legend believes Du Plessis is in for a \u2018rude awakening\u2019<\/a>, the South African has backed himself to finish the fight in any way he wants at any time.<\/p>\n

Former UFC star believes Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s training could make a difference against Dricus Du Plessis<\/p>\n

Although Chimaev<\/a> has struggled against Kamaru Usman over three rounds, the Chechen has made some slight changes to his training camp for the upcoming title clash, which one former UFC star believes will help.<\/p>\n

Darren Till, one-time welterweight title challenger, has been great friends with \u2018The Wolf\u2019 since the Russian came into the MMA organisation, having been a part of some of his training camps.<\/p>\n

In an interview with SecondsOut, he confirmed he was asked to be involved in the preparations for the Dricus fight but declined due to his Misfits fight with Luke Rockhold.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the main event in Chicago, Till said: \u201cI think it\u2019s a f- \u2013 -ing brilliant fight. If Dricus can weather the first two rounds, he\u2019s got a good chance of beating Khamzat but I think Khamzat\u2019s going to be ready for the five rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trained with Arman Tsarukyan out in Thailand. Arman trains very intelligently. He\u2019s probably got Khamzat training the same as well. So I\u2019m looking forward to the fight.<\/p>\n

The Scouser had his run-in with the current middleweight champion in 2022, when he lost via submission in the 31-year-old\u2019s fourth fight in Dana White\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

So he knows all too well the tricky style of the awkward MMA star, and believes the challenger has not faced anyone like him before.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he had a little bit with Gilbert, but no. It\u2019s a very tough style,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo big and so strong, he\u2019s a really dominant force, Dricus, you\u2019ve got to give him his due. He comes in with a presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dricus Du Plessis dominated Darren Till in their 2022 fight<\/p>\n

Till\u2019s 2022 battle with \u2018Stillknocks\u2019 was a very dominant display by the recent debutant, who threw and landed double the number of strikes as his opponent on the night.<\/p>\n

Moreover, his 100% takedown defence of the six times Darren attempted one made for a very intelligent display on the mat.<\/p>\n

After acquiring five minutes of control, the \u2018King of Africa\u2019 took his back and sunk in a nasty neck crank to finish Liverpool\u2019s own.<\/p>\n

Striking is the most effective weapon for Dricus in the bout because the strength of wrestling from Chimaev poses a huge risk to regaining his championship strap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cardio of Khamzat Chimaev has been a big discussion ahead of UFC 319. \u2018Borz\u2019 has become synonymous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,20207,786,4120,785,85,787],"class_list":["post-55067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dricus-du-plessis","tag-fighting","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}