Khamzat Chimaev is just weeks away from his first UFC title fight.
While Chimaev has been trading comments with Paulo Costa this week, he’s focused on facing Dricus du Plessis for the middleweight belt at UFC 319.
The biggest question for many fans heading into this fight, as Luke Rockhold recently spoke about, is whether Chimaev’s cardio will hold up if the bout goes into the later rounds.
‘Borz’ has proven himself to be incredibly dangerous early on in the fight but du Plessis has shown that he can compete over the full five-round duration with a steady output.
Chimaev has joined forces with several notable names while preparing for August 16 in the US, where he may have picked up some additional tools.
TJ Dillashaw expects Khamzat Chimaev’s cardio to be greatly improved by his UFC 319 training camp
In a recent appearance on the Overdogs Podcast, TJ Dillashaw gave his thoughts on the upcoming middleweight title fight.
The former UFC bantamweight champion recently posted a photo of him standing alongside Khamzat Chimaev during the challenger’s training camp.
Dillashaw admitted during the podcast that he originally predicted that Dricus du Plessis would successfully defend the belt due to his superior cardio.
However, his stance has been changed after he introduced Chimaev to a person that had a big impact on his own career.
Both Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan have recently been working at The Treigning Lab under Sam Calavita, who was instrumental in changing Dillashaw’s approach to strength and conditioning.
“I met him and I introduced to him this guy, Sam Calavitta… So Chimaev is doing it right now and I highly suspect he’s going to have an amazingly better gas tank for his next fight and I think he’s going to get the win because of it… He’s going to make the weight better, which in turn is going to make his cardio better and he’s going to train the right way.”
TJ Dillashaw’s recurring shoulder issues started giving him issues following a game on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’
TJ Dillashaw’s UFC career came to an early end due to an accumulation of injuries that meant he couldn’t compete.
The former champion spoke about this during the podcast when he outlined his current career path outside of competing, stating that he can’t even comb his hair with his left hand due to his shoulder issues.
Dillashaw also revealed that his recurring shoulder problems started to become a problem during his time coaching on ‘The Ultimate Fighter‘, rather than anything that he did inside the Octagon.
“Back in 2017, I dislocated my shoulder again doing the coaches challenge against [Cody] Garbrandt. We had to play tether ball on a balance beam, like a gymnastic balance beam and we’re above a pool. I went to go fall off and catch myself and I dislocated my shoulder out the back and ever since then, it’s been giving me issues.”
After returning to the Octagon in 2021 following several years away, Dillashaw competed twice before retiring.