Dricus du Plessis has far too many tools to be troubled by the “one dimensional” Khamzat Chimaev in their UFC 319 middleweight title bout, according to the South African’s coach Morne Visser.
Chimaev has been near flawless in his UFC career thus far, winning each of his eight bouts with relative ease – save for a few uncomfortable moments against both Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman en route to what turned out to be decision victories against the veteran fighters.
However, Visser says that Chimaev has yet to face a test that is quite as robust as what he expects Du Plessis to deliver in the cage in Chicago next week – and added that a high-level wrestling game won’t be enough to dethrone the champion.
“Khamzat doesn’t know what it is when people want to wrestle him. He’s only facing guys who’s trying to get away from his wrestling,” Visser said in a UFC promotional clip.
“We don’t want to try to get away from his wrestling. We want to f*ck him up in his game. You can’t think that you’re gonna beat my guy coming with one thing, and that’s wrestling. 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.”
Visser’s comments come amid diminishing criticism of Du Plessis’ somewhat awkward style in the cage which had been constant throughout his early UFC run. However, with ‘Stillknocks’ having been defeated just once in mixed martial arts competition since 2014 (including a perfect 9-0 run in the UFC) it seems the narrative has shifted somewhat as to effectiveness of his style.
