For the first time in his UFC career, Dricus du Plessis tasted defeat on Saturday night.
In his third defense of the middleweight title, du Plessis was convincingly beaten by Khamzat Chimaev over five rounds.
‘Stillknocks’ showed his resilience but was unable to threaten his challenger with anything substantial across the entire duration.
The champion had no answer for his opponent’s elite wrestling, with Chimaev’s coach going so far as to say that du Plessis’ grappling coach should be fired as a result.
He was optimistic in his post-fight interview about rebuilding from this setback but some concerns were raised following his loss.
Daniel Cormier questions Dricus du Plessis’ preparations following his one-sided UFC 319 loss
Understandably, there was a lot of praise for Khamzat Chimaev following his title-winning performance at UFC 319.
‘Borz’ was able to put questions surrounding his cardio to bed by mauling Dricus du Plessis on the ground for the majority of the five rounds.
In his recap video immediately after the event, Daniel Cormier spoke highly of what he just watched from Chimaev and what the new champion is capable of.
However, ‘DC’ also raised some question marks over the defending champion’s performance and where he went wrong.
Du Plessis has faced plenty of adversity inside the Octagon but after watching him get dominated, Cormier spoke about whether he was well prepared for the challenge that was in front of him.
“It was very impressive by Chimaev. If I’m being honest though, it was a little disappointing on the side of du Plessis because he knew the challenge. I don’t know if they prepared the right way for what challenge was in front of them.
“You know when you’re fighting Chimaev, you’ve got to be able to get up if taken down, and you’ve got to make the takedowns hard. He wasn’t able to do either of those things tonight and now he’s the former champ.”
- LATEST NEWS: Khamzat Chimaev plans to keep using cardio weapon from UFC 319 camp that helped prove his doubters wrong
Daniel Cormier believes Khamzat Chimaev’s rivals need to start working sooner rather than later
While Daniel Cormier was critical of Dricus du Plessis’ preparations, he also acknowledged that training for a guy like Khamzat Chimaev is incredibly difficult.
In some ways, you know what he’s going to do but predicting it and stopping it are two vastly different things.
In his UFC 319 recap video, Cormier advised that the top UFC middleweights should start preparing for this style ahead of time, believing that it will take them time to get ready for Chimaev.
“All these guys should be running to the wrestling room right now. Getting with a coach that can prepare them for the wrestling exchanges because the controls that Chimaev uses, the wrist fighting, the hand fighting, the forward pressure, these are all things that you learn in the wrestling room as a kid and then you apply them to fighting.
“I don’t know if one training camp is going to be enough to help you close the gap because Chimaev is so good in those areas.”