No. 3-ranked middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev, stays undefeated in his combined martial arts (MMA) profession, compiling an ideal 14-0 document with 12 finishes. That features his first-round submission victory over Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 final fall in Abu Dhabi.
Don’t count on Dricus Du Plessis to be intimidated.
That’s as a result of the reigning middleweight titleholder believes Chimaev might be unable to maintain tempo when their eventual title battle drags on into the championship rounds, primarily based on difficulties “Borz” had towards UFC veterans Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman.
‘’The best way he goes for it within the first spherical, he’s actually laborious to take care of to start with of the battle, however so am I,” Du Plessis informed Ariel Helwani on Tuesday. “While you go that tough and spherical two, three, 4, 5 comes, you continue to should be there and I’ve confirmed that I’m there in these rounds. If he needs to come back out, I’m nonetheless gonna be there, like I used to be there within the first, able to kill, and that can by no means change in my sport.”
Du Plessis (23-2) is 9-0 underneath the UFC banner and coming off his UFC 312 title protection towards former champion Sean Strickland. Defeating Chimaev may put him one or two fights away from cleansing out the 185-pound weight class, resulting in a possible leap to the sunshine heavyweight division.
“If you happen to have a look at a man like Kamaru Usman, what he did with Khamzat on 10-days discover, you have a look at Gilbert Burns, these guys don’t get intimidated by folks screaming, ‘I smesh, I smesh,’ on the microphone after lacking weight — that’s not the way it works,” Du Plessis continued. “Folks consider Khamzat as this boogeyman. I don’t. I don’t see that. For me, I solely see one factor. That’s the potential to do good to my legacy. The potential to make my legacy even higher.”
UFC is anticipated to guide Du Plessis vs. Chimaev for later this 12 months.
