A former UFC champion has spotted an interesting weapon in Khamzat Chimaev’s MMA arsenal.
Chimaev is heading into the fight as a slight favourite among UFC fans and fighters ahead of his Dricus Du Plessis clash, with a ranked middleweight contender favouring his ‘crazy’ style.
But Du Plessis is used to being in the position of underdog, with his Sean Strickland title win a perfect example of the South African overcoming the odds due to his ‘awkward’ combat style.
Belief among fans is that if the fight is taken to the ground, ‘The Wolf’ will use his expert grappling and wrestling to apply the finish to the champion.
Former UFC champion breaks down Khamzat Chimaev’s best weapon against Dricus Du Plessis
His latest submission victory over Robert Whittaker was a prime example of his danger on the mat, with his control over ‘The Reaper’ transitioning into a neck crank, which ended the fight inside the first round.
That performance was broken down by former UFC flyweight champion ‘Mighty Mouse’ Demetrious Johnson before the August 16th title fight in Chicago.
Johnson focused his trained eye on the groundwork of the Chechen and picked out his key weapon, which could spell danger for Dricus if he finds himself in that position.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, he explained: “He’s attacking Robert Whitaker’s post (arm). Each time Whitaker tries to push up to get himself up, Khamzat has taken it away.
“If he gets DDP here, DDP is going to have a very hard time surviving because he’s so fixated on wrestling and out-grappling people that he’s always going to be taking your post and you’re always going to be carrying his weight.”
The inaugural flyweight champion also commented that the challenger would wrestle ‘all day every day’ if he could, and does not want to do ‘anything’ when it comes to striking.
It wasn’t just the attacks on the levers of DDP that would be a problem for ‘Stillknocks’, the mindset of ‘Borz’ when taking opponents to the mat makes him an even bigger problem.
“But that’s what makes him so good is that he’s fixated on one thing, and once he starts on that mission to get it, he’s not going to stop till he gets it,” ‘Mighty Mouse’ said.
“Everything he’s doing is technically sound, perfect. Forcing his opponent to make a bad mistake.”
Former Dricus Du Plessis opponent warns of Khamzat Chimaev pressure
Not only has he been warned by DJ about the potential issues when wrestling the Russian, but former rival Strickland also told the champion not to go to the ground.
While he backed the unorthodox star to have the better of a stand-up striking exchange, he wasn’t sure if he was prepared for the ‘crazy’ grappling.
The former middleweight champion said: “But if he could handle it, get up, and work his way up – I mean, it’s kind of hard because it was a long time ago, but Brad (Tavares) took him down and held him down.
“So it’s like, he just really has to be ready for an extreme amount of pressure on the ground. If he can withstand that, he’s going to beat him.”
Tavares managed to control Du Plessis for two minutes overall in his decision loss to the current king of the division in 2022.