Dricus du Plessis has always found a way to win in the UFC Octagon.
The UFC Middleweight Champion is a perfect 9-0 under the UFC banner, with his next title challenger Khamzat Chimaev one win from getting there himself.
Du Plessis and Chimaev headline UFC 319 this Saturday from Chicago, Illinois, in what fans are calling the biggest fight of the year.
Some pundits predict Chimaev to make quick work out of du Plessis with his wrestling, like he has against so many others. However, du Plessis is a tough man to put away, defeating the likes of Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland and Robert Whittaker.
Chimaev’s toughest opponent Kamaru Usman recently backed ‘Borz’ to win the title, as did former DDP foe Darren Till.
One of the greatest fighters of all time has to disagree with them.
Demetrious Johnson picks Dricus du Plessis to beat Khamzat Chimaev
Demetrious Johnson is backing du Plessis to hand Chimaev his first loss at UFC 319.
The UFC flyweight GOAT says there’s still a lot of questions to be answered regarding Chimaev, seeing as he only fights once a year.
“Not a lot of keys to victory for Khamzat,” Johnson said on his YouTube channel.
“It’s more about, is he prepared to go the third round? I mean, he’s gone three rounds, but those three rounds he’s winning against, the Gilbert Burns fight was a back-and-forth war.
“It was back-and-forth when he fought Kamaru Usman. We’ve never seen Khamzat shoot a shot when he desperately has to. We always see Khamzat shoot on his behalf when he wants to… For me it’s more mysterious. We don’t have much data on Khamzat and I’m hoping to get more.
“Key to victory #1 for DDP is you have to win that first exchange as well,” Johnson continued.
“The first clash is always the one that dictates what’s going to happen when you fight Khamzat. So DDP’s got to make sure he wins that first one.
“Key #2, push the pace. When [Chimaev] seems to fail on those clashes, that’s when you see a little weakness in his armor, is that his cardio isn’t insane. But once again, that credits to his health. He was always gassed out, he was always overtrained when he would fight.
“I’m gonna have to go DDP,” Johnson revealed his prediction for UFC 319.
“DDP has fought the best of the best of the division. This guy’s able to throw a right hand, fall, slip on a banana peel, and for some reason the guy falls over…
“It just doesn’t make sense how he’s able to get things done,” Johnson said of du Plessis’ unorthodox style.
“And he has a style where it forces people to do things that shouldn’t have worked essentially. So, for that, I’m gonna go with DDP.”
Dricus du Plessis: ‘Maybe I draw a hole in the middle of the Octagon’
Du Plessis has seen the memes ahead of his upcoming title defense against Chimaev.
Many fans have commented how du Plessis beats Chimaev, whether it’s by getting a rare submission or something silly, like from out of a cartoon.
‘Stillknocks’ seems to get the idea.
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do,” du Plessis said in an interview with Jon-Bernard Kairouz.
“It could be DDP by accident, DDP by falling piano…
“Maybe I draw a hole in the middle of the Octagon and he falls through it.
“Maybe I blow up my thumb, hit him with it.
“I can win by car crash, comically large hammer, that would be in the corner,” du Plessis joked.