Dricus du Plessis’ coach, Morne Visser, is confident that his fighter will come out on top against “one-dimensional” Khamzat Chimaev.
Emanating from the United Center in Chicago, ‘DDP’ will put his middleweight championship on the line for the third time when he takes on the undefeated Chechen monster this Saturday, August 16, at UFC 319.
Chimaev is a perfect 14-0 and has become something of a boogeyman in the division courtesy of his relentless wrestling and brutal submissions. For many, the game plan has been the same—survive the early onslaught in hopes that Chimaev will deplete his gas tank before hitting the latter rounds. To some extent, it’s worked for fighters like Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman, though both of them still fell to the unbeaten bruiser.
However, du Plessis’ team plans to take a much different approach.
“Khamzat doesn’t know what it is when people wanna wrestle him,” Visser said via UFC 319 Countdown. “He’s only facing guys who are trying to get away from him, from his wrestling. We don’t want to try and get away from his wrestling, we want to f–k him up in these games.
“You can’t think that you’re gonna beat my guy with one thing, and that’s wrestling. That guy’s one dimensional. We’ve seen his stand-up. I wouldn’t even give him a pro license for his s–t stand-up. He doesn’t present any problem for us. We are the problem.”
Du Plessis is going to fight his fight against Khamzat Chimaev
In seven of his nine career UFC fights, du Plessis has opened as the underdog. UFC 319 will be no different as Chimaev goes into his first title tilt as a 2-to-1 favorite. Of course, that just gives ‘DDP’ another chance to defy the odds, and he plans to do exactly that by beating ‘Borz’ at his own game.
“I’m not going in there to fight his fight,” du Plessis said. “I’m going in there to fight my fight. Just like I dealt with Adesanya’s striking, Strickland’s boxing, I’m going to deal with Khamzat’s wrestling.”