Things are getting heated between Dricus Du Plessis’ team and Khamzat Chimaev ahead of their huge clash at UFC 319.
On August 16, Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev will finally clash inside the Octagon in the UFC 319 main event, after almost a year of calling to fight each other.
With Chimaev’s track record of debilitating health issues, ahead of his fight in Chicago, he has taken drastic measures to avoid getting ill, claiming that he has been avoiding going out in public.
And just a week out from their clash, the South African champion has revealed that he still has some ways to go before he is down to the 185lb limit.
Du Plessis’ coach goes in on Chimaev and labels him ‘one-dimensional’
‘Stillknocks’ has admitted that Chimaev is likely his toughest opponent to date, but he believes his ‘controversial’ fight style will once again be his superpower.
And although ‘Borz’ is widely regarded as the most dominant wrestler in the sport at the moment, he has been slammed by Du Plessis’ head coach, Morne Visser.
“Khamzat doesn’t know what it is when people want to wrestle him, he’s only facing guys who are trying to get away from his wrestling,” Visser said on the UFC 319 countdown episode.
“We don’t want to try and get away from his wrestling, we want to f— him up in his game. You can’t think you’re gonna beat my guy, coming with one thing and it’s wrestling. That guy’s one-dimensional.
“Have you seen his stand up? I wouldn’t even give him a pro license for his s— standup, he doesn’t present any problems for us, we are the problem,” Visser continued.
Du Plessis wants to beat Chimaev at his own game
Ahead of his fight against Israel Adesanya, Du Plessis received a lot of criticism for claiming that he wanted to beat him at his own game of striking.
Despite the criticism, he did exactly that. And ahead of his matchup against the Chechen, ‘Stillknocks’ has said that he wants to beat Chimaev in the wrestling.
“We’re preparing like we’ve never prepared before. I’m not going in there to fight his fight. I’m going in there to fight my fight. Just like I dealt with Adesanya’s striking and I dealt with Strickland’s boxing, I’m going to deal with Khamzat’s wrestling,” Du Plessis said.