3 reasons Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dricus Du Plessis will be EPIC
The potential fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus Du Plessis could be one of the biggest UFC headliners in recent times.
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Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev [via- Gallo Images and UFC]
After defeating Sean Strickland in a pretty underwhelming fight at UFC 312, Dricus Du Plessis only appears to have one fight in mind next: Khamzat Chimaev. The two Middleweights will likely collide at some point later this year before DDP heads up to 205lbs for a dream bout with Alex Pereira, but what makes this 185lb clash one of the most anticipated for fans this year?
In terms of intrigue, I can’t actually think of a more interesting fight that the company could put together right now. Yes, Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones would probably be a bigger box office draw, but this fight between two unbeaten octagon warriors has all of the makings of an instant classic.
1. Clash of Two Fighters Unbeaten in the UFC
This will be a clash between two fighters with unblemished records inside the octagon. Du Plessis has lost three fights in his professional MMA career, but those all came prior to his signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (2014 and 2018). DDP also has the longest win-streak at 185 currently at 9 wins, so a W for Chimaev would be absolutely massive for him in multiple senses.
The sell for this fight on PPV writes itself, and I can almost guarantee that the UFC will be wanting to put this in the main event of a fight card around International Fight Week, their next event at MSG or even as a top billed contest in Saudi Arabia.
2. Two very different fighters
Khamzat Chimaev has been absolutely relentless when it comes to shooting for a takedown in his UFC fights thus far, and there’s no doubt that he’ll be going for a similar strategy when he faces DDP. We all know by now that Du Plessis is relentless in his own right and as unorthodox a fighter as they come, so will he be able to adapt to the incredible wrestling quality of Chimaev?
The stats for Du Plessis do not exactly do him any favors in that department, as the reigning Middleweight Champion has a 50% Takedown Defense rate. The question is whether or not Chimaev’s takedown ability is going to be enough to bring down the South African, and for my money, DDP hasn’t faced ANYONE with the wrestling qualities of Chimaev.
Not only do I think that Chimaev is going to take down DDP fairly easily, but I’m really intrigued to see how Du Plessis deals with the pressure that his opponent is going to bring when they finally meet in a PPV main event. You just need to look at the stats below to see how many times Chimaev goes for the takedown compared to DDP’s defense:
| Statistic | Dricus Du Plessis | Khamzat Chimaev |
| Significant Strikes Landed per Minute (SLpM) | 6.12 | 5.36 |
| Striking Accuracy (Str. Acc.) | 48% | 58% |
| Significant Strikes Absorbed per Minute (SApM) | 4.9 | 3.25 |
| Striking Defense (Str. Def.) | 54% | 41% |
| Takedown Average (TD Avg.) | 2.55 | 4.31 |
| Takedown Accuracy (TD Acc.) | 50% | 46% |
| Takedown Defense (TD Def.) | 50% | 100% |
| Submission Average (Sub. Avg.) | 0.7 | 2.8 |
Joe Rogan also revealed his intrigue regarding the takedown defence of DDP and whether he is going to be able to deal with Chimaev’s wrestling:
Can Dricus stop that takedown? It’s hard to say because we don’t know what would happen with Khamzat. Khamzat just shoots from like 15 feet away and gets a hold of your legs so quick. You’ve got to think that his endurance is probably going to be better at 185 [lbs] than it was at 170 because of the cut for Khamzat. 185 is really where he [Chimaev] should have been all the way along.
Joe Rogan via talkSPORT
3. Does Chimaev have a gastank like DDP’s?
There were so many people questioning Du Plessis’ gastank last year, but his two decision wins over Sean Strickland have proven that he can go the full 25 minutes in a title fight. What we don’t know is what sort of gastank ‘Borz’ actually has.
Across Chimaev’s entire MMA career he has only gone the distance twice when he defeated Kamaru Usman by decision at UFC UFC 294 and Gilbert Burns at UFC 273 by Unanimous Decision. Those two fights were only 3 rounds, so the most amount of time he has been in the octagon is 15 minutes.
The question is whether DDP is able to keep Chimaev at bay to try and push the contest into those later rounds to test whether Borz can actually still go at rounds 4 and 5. If Dricus Du Plessis can keep the undefeated fighter at an arm’s length for that long, then I think he has a very good chance of winning the fight.
Something else that will be tested as the fight goes on is whether Chimaev will be able to have the energy needed to try and lock in submissions. 43% of the wins across his MMA career have come through submission, with the Brabo Choke and Rear Naked Choke being some favorites from his arsenal.
Chimaev also has one of the best records when it comes to average time in Bottom Position at a mere 6 seconds. Whether he is going to be able to maintain this dominance in later rounds will likely be tested when he finally gets the chance to fight DDP.
When this fight does finally get confirmed, it will be one of the biggest of 2025 or 2026 if the company has to push it back that far. There’s a lot on the line for both men, and it could change the landscape at 185lbs going forward.
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Jake Skudder
(28 Articles Published)