After Training with ‘Crazy Strong’ Dricus Du Plessis, UFC Veteran Says Khamzat Chimaev Likely to Lose Title Match
Former UFC title challenger Anthony Smith thinks Dricus Du Plessis has the strength and the stamina necessary to hand Khamzat Chimaev his first career loss.
Du Plessis scored his second successful title defense at UFC 312, outworking Sean Strickland for five rounds en route to a dominant unanimous decision victory.
But even before the scorecards were read, fighters and fans alike were already debating who would come out on top between ‘DDP’ and the undefeated Chechen monster.
Smith favors du Plessis in ‘super competitive’ fight with khamzat chimaev
Hopefully, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out, but after Du Plessis’ solid showing in Sydney, ‘Lionheart’ finds himself favoring the South African star to come out on top in their inevitable clash.
“He looks to be crazy strong, just by the reactions of the people that he’s fighting—like how they react when he grabs a hold of them,” Smith said of Du Plessis during an appearance on Submission Radio. “You know, the guy’s the champion. He’s a champion, and he’s the rightful one. He seems to have a stranglehold on that title. He’s got a gas tank—that was another criticism he had very early in his career, that he seemed to gas later on in some of these fights.
“But he just went five hard rounds at a high pace with Sean Strickland, and that’s not an easy task. I’ve tried to do it myself in the gym—it’s hard to do. He’s got all the tools and all the weapons, and I think that’s a super competitive fight. But I do find myself probably favoring Du Plessis a little bit. And that’s a crazy statement if you would have looked back a year ago.”
Du Plessis and Chimaev are a combined 17-0 under the UFC banner. Along the way, ‘Borz’ has bested some big names, including Gilbert Burns and ex-titleholders Kamaru Usman and Robert Whittaker while ‘DDP’ has beaten both Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland during his middleweight title reign.
