With Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev all however confirmed, analysts are already starting to choose sides.
Over the weekend, ‘DDP’ secured his second profitable protection of the UFC middleweight title, scoring a dominant resolution victory over Sean Strickland in Sydney, Australia.
Instantly after the win, Du Plessis referred to as for a possible champion vs. champion showdown with mild heavyweight king Alex Pereira. Nonetheless, all indicators level to ‘Stillknocks’ sticking round at 185 for at the least another battle to check his mettle in opposition to the undefeated Chechen monster.
Throughout an look on Monday’s version of The Ariel Helwani Present, former UFC fighter turned analyst Din Thomas provided his tackle the extremely anticipated title tilt, suggesting that Du Plessis’ capability to tempo himself would be the difference-maker in opposition to Chimaev who’s at all times making an attempt to dash to the end.
“Khamzat [Chimaev] is a sprinter… You possibly can’t battle championship degree fights for 5 rounds on the tempo the place he’s at his finest,” Thomas stated. “If he fights like that at his finest, I believe Dricus [du Plessis] is so sturdy and he’s so good that he’ll be capable of face up to that. Now they’re swimming in deep water and Khamzat can’t swim that deep… Pacing is an enormous issue.”
Chimaev opens as 2-to-1 favourite over dricus du plessis
Du Plessis’ final three fights have all been five-rounders with solely certainly one of them ending inside the space. That being his UFC 305 protection in opposition to Israel Adesanya wherein ‘DDP’ tapped out ‘The Final Stylebender’ on the 3:38 mark of the fourth spherical.
Alternatively, Chimaev has solely gone a full three rounds twice in his blended martial arts profession, these being his fights in opposition to Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. And in each cases, ‘Borz’ started to noticeably fade within the second half of each of these fights.
Even so, the oddsmakers don’t appear to agree with Thomas’ evaluation. SportsBetting.ag opened Du Plessis because the betting underdog, favoring Chimaev to come back out on high 2-to-1. Nonetheless, ‘DDP’ has already closed the hole with him now sitting as a slight +125 underdog in opposition to Chimaev who’s a -145 favourite.
