Demetrious Johnson thinks if Dricus Du Plessis can hold his combat with Khamzat Chimaev on the toes, he’ll doubtless go away together with his middleweight gold intact.
DDP’ secured his second profitable title protection in Sydney, Australia, scoring a dominant choice victory over Sean Strickland. And whereas a lot of Du Plessis’ post-fight feedback have been centered on a future combat with gentle heavyweight king Alex Pereira, all indicators at present level to a extremely anticipated conflict with the undefeated Chechen monster being subsequent for the South African star.
Breaking down a possible showdown between Du Plessis and Chimaev, flyweight nice Demetrious Johnson believes ‘DDP’ can outstrike Chimaev on the toes. It’s only a matter of warding off the wrestle-heavy assault of ‘Borz’ and forcing him to face and commerce.
“And it’s gonna be a sick fight because we know what Khamzat’s going to do,” Johnson mentioned throughout an interview with The MMA Guru. “You already know he’s going to go on the market—he’s going to look to wrestle, proper? Yeah, he does job. I don’t need to say he’s simply posing on the toes, however when he fought Kamaru Usman, when he fought Robert Whittaker—everyone he’s fought, apart from Gilbert Burns, and him went toe-to-toe on the toes.
“But I think Khamzat loves the grappling, and we’re going to see if DDP can use, you know, his clumsy style and outwrestle Khamzat. Because I think if it does stay on the feet, DDP can outstrike him. Yeah, Khamzat does have a rhythm to him, but he’s not very—you know, like bah bah bah—he doesn’t really throw a lot of combinations.”
Can Du Plessis hold with ‘Borz’ on the mat?
Whereas Du Plessis just isn’t essentially identified for his floor sport, ‘Stillknocks’ have confirmed himself greater than able to taking fighters down and warding off opposing wrestlers. Via his 9 fights contained in the Octagon, ‘DDP’ has a takedown common of two.55 per quarter-hour. He additionally lands and defends 50% of all takedowns initiated by or towards him.
Strickland landed six takedowns towards each Darren Until and Sean Strickland of their first assembly. He additionally put former two-time middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya on the mat 4 instances throughout their UFC 305 headliner earlier than tapping out ‘The Last Stylebender’ within the fourth spherical through a rear-naked choke.
On the flip facet, Khamzat Chimaev averages 4.31 takedowns with a 46% accuracy. He has additionally by no means as soon as been taken down contained in the Octagon.
