Dricus Du Plessis: Khamzat Chimaev Is A Bigger Challenger Than Sean Strickland

Dricus Du Plessis: Khamzat Chimaev Is A Bigger Challenger Than Sean Strickland

UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis has taken a hard stance that he would rather defend his title against Khamzat Chimaev than Sean Strickland. The champion has added to that position with the claim that Chimaev will be a tougher fight than Strickland.

Du Plessis compared matchups against Chimaev and Strickland in an interview with Submission Radio. All quotes via TheScore.

“The Khamzat fight is definitely the bigger challenge,” Du Plessis told Submission Radio. “It’s something I haven’t seen before. It’s the unknown.

“In any fight, that’s the biggest factor: How strong is this guy? How hard does this guy hit? How deep into the deep waters is this guy willing to go? … (With) a guy like Sean Strickland, I’ve seen it all. I know what he can do.”

The question marks surrounding Chimaev are very potent. At this point, we have never seen Chimaev deep in a five-round fight. Plus, he is limited in his middleweight experience. Those may not be bad things, but those questions may it hard to game plan for a five-round fight.

Chimaev also presents a dominant wrestling style that Du Plessis has not been forced to deal with. That is a vastly different style to deal with than Strickland’s point striking.

“It’s a very big challenge,” Du Plessis said. “Make no mistake, I think Khamzat is an incredible, incredible athlete. He’s an incredible wrestler. He can strike, he’s tough, he works hard.”

It seems likely that Du Plessis and Chimaev will eventually cross paths. The pair are both at the top of the middleweight division and would create an interesting bout if book against one another.

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