Dricus du Plessis will be in full attack mode when he faces Khamzat Chimaev, according to the middleweight champion’s head coach.
Du Plessis and Chimaev headline UFC 319 for the middleweight title in Chicago on Aug. 16 in one of the biggest fights of the year for the promotion. The undefeated Chimaev is known for his fast starts, while du Plessis has shown a lot in all aspects of MMA during his impressive title reign.
As du Plessis prepares for his third title defense, his head coach Morne Visser says his fighter is ready to go right into the fire with Chimaev.
“Khamzat doesn’t know what it is when people want to wrestle him,” Visser said on UFC 319 Countdown. “He’s only facing guys who are trying to get away from his wrestling. We don’t want to try to get away from his wrestling, we want to f*ck him up in his game.”
Du Plessis looks for his second win of the year after dominating Sean Strickland in their second meeting at UFC 312 in February. Prior to that, “Stillknocks” stopped Israel Adesanya in his first title defense at UFC 305 in August 2024.
Chimaev earned his title shot with his first-round destruction of former champ Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 this past October. While most fighters are focused on being defensively sound against Chimaev, du Plessis’ coach feels the champion can mimic some of the success Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman had against Chimaev in the past by being the offensive wrestling attacker.
According to Visser, that will lead to ultimate success for du Plessis, because Visser is not impressed in any way by Chimaev’s striking.
“You can’t think that you’re gonna beat my guy coming with one thing, and that’s wrestling,” Visser explained. “That guy is one-dimensional. Have you seen his standup? I wouldn’t even give him a pro license for his standup. He doesn’t present any problem for us. We’re the problem.”
