Dricus Du
Plessis has opened up about his lone loss in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, which came against Khamzat
Chimaev at
UFC 319.
The former UFC middleweight champion admitted that he spent his
training camp preparing for fast-paced scrambles, only for Chimaev
to adopt a far more conservative approach, which ultimately threw
him off.
Dricus du Plessis revisits defeat to Khamzat Chimaev: ‘There
was no scramble’
The South African lost to Chimaev in August of last year, giving up
nearly 22 minutes of ground control time to “Borz.” Moreover,
Chimaev followed the same pattern in every round: putting du
Plessis into the crucifix position and occasionally landing short
strikes from top position. Speaking to Submission Radio, „Stillknocks“ explained how his opponent’s grappling approach took
him by surprise.
“It’s a style thing. The way he moved, it’s something that I
haven’t seen, haven’t felt, and it wasn’t a strength problem at
all,” du Plessis said. “It was just a way that he could get it to a
place where we were static. There was no scramble.”
He also revealed that during his training camp, his team focused on
preparing for the relentless, fast-paced, and aggressive grappling
threats that have defined Chimaev’s previous fights.
“That’s what I was preparing for because if you look at all of his
other fights, that exciting, let’s go, going for a choke, he didn’t
go for one submission,” he added. “That was what we prepared for,
and he was just like, ‘Cool, let’s just lie here and steal people’s
money.’”
Eager to return to winning ways and title contention, du Plessis
takes on former welterweight champion Kamaru
Usman at
UFC Oklahoma City on July 18.