{"id":61919,"date":"2025-08-11T17:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T17:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/61919\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T17:08:08","slug":"dricus-du-plessis-believes-he-is-different-to-khamzat-chimaev-ahead-of-ufc-319","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/61919\/","title":{"rendered":"Dricus Du Plessis believes he is \u2018different\u2019 to Khamzat Chimaev ahead of UFC 319"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dricus Du Plessis is not concerned about his middleweight title opponent on Saturday, August 16th.<\/p>\n

The South African has become one of the UFC\u2019s<\/a> most dominant champions, dispatching Sean Strickland and modern great Israel Adesanya in his last two fights.<\/p>\n

He does have a contrasting challenge in the exceptional wrestling ability of Khamzat Chimaev<\/a>, and how he will perform across the five championship rounds is a major unknown heading into the bout.<\/p>\n

\"KhamzatPhoto by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC<\/p>\n

According to Rampage Jackson, he is an \u2018animal<\/a>\u2018 in training and is looking to use his improved cardio from his recent gym sessions to full advantage.<\/p>\n

Dricus Du Plessis doesn\u2019t believe Khamzat Chimaev is \u2018different\u2019 from past opponents<\/p>\n

\u2018Stillknocks\u2019 is favoured over the distance compared to his opponent because of his championship rounds experience, even if he appears deceptively tired during rounds.<\/p>\n

His nine-fight tear through the division has seen him dispatch different contenders, from former MMA star Darren Till to Robert Whittaker, and he believes this fight is no different from the rest.<\/p>\n

Speaking to SHAK MMA, the middleweight champion was blunt when asked about what he expects from the Russian when they face off in the Octagon.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAt the end of the day, he hasn\u2019t been on the ground with me either, he hasn\u2019t been in a standup exchange with me either. The way he does things is the way that it should be done 100%. From a wrestling grappling perspective, he does not do something that hasn\u2019t been seen before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s been a lot of guys that do it the way I do it. And when it comes to pure wrestling and pure grappling, of course, Khamzat is amazing, but this is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

These claims about \u2018The Wolf\u2019s\u2019 style have been made by the Dricus camp even when the fight was announced and was reaffirmed by his coach, who called Khamzat \u2018one-dimensional\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since making his professional MMA debut in 2013, the experience of the 31-year-old means he knows when the best time is to jump on his opponents and secure a finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll just know when it happens, and I have known that. Every guy that I\u2019ve fought, I\u2019ve seen when it happens. You can feel it,\u201d Du Plessis<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see some tells when you look at the body language. But you sense it like a predator senses its prey is weak. You just sense it. You can see it in the aura.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dricus Du Plessis gives his odds on if Robert Whittaker will ever have another UFC title shot<\/p>\n

Former Dricus opponent Whittaker recently lost a razor-close split decision to Reinier de Ridder, ending any hopes of a rematch against the champion.<\/p>\n

An ex-middleweight champion himself, \u2018The Reaper\u2019 last fought for the belt in 2022 against Adesanya, and in the opinion of Du Plessis, it may have been his last title bout<\/p>\n

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

Continuing in his interview, he was asked about the chances of the Australian challenging for the belt again.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m going to go under. Love him. Love Rob. Massive fan and awesome guy. I just don\u2019t think I see that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loss to de Ridder has knocked him out of the top five positions for the first time in eight years, and while not confirmed, it may have been his last MMA bout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dricus Du Plessis is not concerned about his middleweight title opponent on Saturday, August 16th. The South African…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,17724,641,5899,638,82,640],"class_list":["post-61919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dricus-du-plessis","tag-fighting","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}