One UFC legend does not think Dricus du Plessis is getting enough credit for how his next title defense came together.
Du Plessis has continued to prove his doubters wrong in MMA’s leading promotion, first by staying undefeated all the way to a title shot, then by capturing the gold, and most recently by amassing an imposing reign as the UFC’s middleweight king.
Both Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya have failed to unseat the South African to date, but the champion could be set for his toughest challenge on August 16 when Khamzat Chimaev challenges Du Plessis at UFC 319.
It is safe to say that most fighters have not exactly been raising their hands to fight the undefeated Chechen phenom since he arrived in the UFC. Du Plessis, though, is not ‘most fighters’…
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Daniel Cormier praises ‘honorable’ Dricus du Plessis for seeking the greatest challenge
Talk of Chimaev battling ‘Stillknocks’ first arose in August 2024, after Du Plessis submitted Adesanya at UFC 305 to successfully defend his title for the first time. The champ immediately pointed to the winner of ‘Borz’ vs. Robert Whittaker later in the year as the man he wanted to face.
While he had to get through Strickland again first, that has ultimately come to fruition. And though the manner in which Chimaev crushed Whittaker at UFC 308 might have put some titleholders off defending their gold against him, Du Plessis’ enthusiasm for the bout has seemingly only increased.
In an age where champions have been accused of ‘ducking’ their biggest threats, such as Jon Jones’ stance on Tom Aspinall before his retirement and most recently Ilia Topuria’s position about Arman Tsarukyan, Daniel Cormier has high praise for Du Plessis’ mindset.
“Let me tell you one key thing that people are missing in this — and I love this about Du Plessis,” Cormier said on his Good Guy/Bad Guy show.
“He leaves the fight after beating Adesanya, who he had so much history with — that fight was so heavy. He goes and he (says), “I’ll fight anybody.’ Goes and beats Sean Strickland again because they said Sean Strickland was deserving. Right after that, he goes, ‘I want Chimaev next.’
“Nobody was saying that!” Cormier continued. “Everybody was saying, ‘Well, he needs to win more.’ Every one of the toughest guy in the division, the champ (usually) goes, ‘He needs to do something else…he needs to win another fight, this doesn’t work for me.’
“Not Dricus. Dricus looked right down the barrel of the camera and said, ‘I want Chimaev.’ … A champ who called out the toughest guy in the bracket…DDP is saying, ‘The guy that is gonna push me the most, is the guy I wanna see inside the Octagon.’ That’s really honorable in today’s MMA.”
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Khamzat Chimaev’s toughest test is backing Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319
While Chimaev has been dominant for most of his UFC career thus far, he has been pushed to the limit by a couple of notable names.
Before Kamaru Usman threatened to spoil Chimaev’s run in 2024, ‘Borz’ went the distance with Gilbert Burns down at welterweight. The pair went to war in Jacksonville, with Chimaev defeating Burns at UFC 273 by way of a close decision.
Having dragged the Chechen to deep waters in their fight, ‘Durinho’ is well placed to assess the champion’s chances of doing so at UFC 319, and Burns is backing Du Plessis to go a step further than he did.
“I don’t believe Dricus will get knocked out. I don’t think he’s going to get cut. I don’t think he’s going to get finished,” Burns said on the Show Me The Money podcast. “I do believe Dricus is going to fight through all that, get up.
“I think if he’s slowing down the way (he did) against Kamaru, against me, against a couple other fighters that the fight went late, I think it’s a nightmare to fight Dricus.
“Both guys are going to get exhausted in the second round,” Burns continued. “But I do believe Dricus with all (his) experience, a lot of five-round fighting, I think he’s going to be able to recover, dig deep and he hit so hard.
“Maybe a decision, but I do believe a late finish (for Du Plessis). Not even that late. I think third to fourth round. That’s my prediction.”