Khamzat Chimaev has remained one of the vital hyped fighters on all the UFC roster ever since his dramatic debut the place he rattled off three wins inside two months, however now, he’ll face his hardest take a look at going in opposition to middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis on Saturday.
The undefeated Chechen goes for gold for the primary time in his profession when he clashes with du Plessis within the UFC 319 predominant occasion, however regardless of being the challenger, Chimaev is definitely favored to win. Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman had nothing however reward for Chimaev when addressing his possibilities of beating du Plessis to assert the title.
The truth is, Weidman was very joyful to see Chimaev handle arguably his greatest concern when he teamed up with famed coach Sam Calavita, who has labored with quite a few UFC fighters together with former bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw, to assist them enhance cardio and conditioning.
“Chimaev, he’s that man. He’s the boogeyman for a motive,” Weidman mentioned throughout the UFC Vegas 109 publish present. “He was a welterweight, sort of went backwards and forwards for a bit of bit after which he settled at welterweight for some time after which he goes up and fights Robert Whittaker, a former champion, and what he did to him no one has ever performed earlier than. Finishes him within the first spherical. Simply takes him down, breaks his jaw or breaks his enamel. He simply runs proper by him.
“Now right here he’s combating DDP and it’s tremendous thrilling. As a result of DDP, he doesn’t get drained. Chimaev, we’ve seen decelerate in a few his fights with [Gilbert] Burns and with [Kamaru] Usman. However now he’s on the Storage with Sam Calavita, who’s a energy coach that’s just about recognized for gassing guys out and getting them in great form. He’s performed that point and time once more. So doing all the pieces he’s imagined to do to take care of his points and we’re going to see the perfect model of Chimaev.”
However is the perfect model of Chimaev sufficient to get by du Plessis?
Weidman believes if Chimaev goes to win the belt, he has to ratchet up the stress and actually go after du Plessis within the early rounds. Even together with his improved conditioning, Weidman actually believes that overwhelming du Plessis to start out the combat is Chimaev’s finest and maybe solely path to victory.
“I feel he’s bought to complete him,” Weidman mentioned about Chimaev. :I feel he’s bought to complete him within the first couple of rounds as a result of I don’t see him successful a call.
“Dricus is simply an excessive amount of. He’s far and wide, it’s exhausting to trace him down. You don’t want to be drained in opposition to that man going into the fifth spherical. He hasn’t had that have but.”
Whereas Chimaev has been scheduled for a five-round combat beforehand, he’s by no means gone previous the third throughout his UFC profession.
As a lot as Weidman credited Chimaev for addressing his endurance within the leadup to UFC 319, he simply is aware of du Plessis is a monster in terms of pushing the tempo and imposing his will on each opponent he’s confronted within the UFC.
That’s why du Plessis stays undefeated within the octagon with the middleweight title securely wrapped round his waist.
“I’m going Dricus later [in the fight] as a result of I’m a genius,” Weidman joked whereas giving his prediction. “Hear, we simply talked about cardio of Chimaev being the difficulty. DDP, he’s a goer. Mainly it comes all the way down to how comfy you’re in there. “I feel DDP does a terrific job of creating folks uncomfortable. A number of instances what makes you comfy is having expertise being in there in these 5 spherical fights and Chimaev doesn’t have that.”
