Written by Dricus du Plessis | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Dricus du Plessis has been unstoppable in the UFC and his head coach doesn’t expect Khamzat Chimaev to end that streak.
In an interview with Submission Radio, du Plessis coach Morne Visser discussed the injury rumors that the UFC middleweight champion had to recently dispel, and more importantly, Chimaev, who was partially responsible for those rumors circulating. Online chatter questioned why du Plessis had not been announced to defend his title against the unbeaten Chimaev at UFC 317 on June 28, but du Plessis and his team have stood by their story that the booking was never official.
Should the two eventually face off as expected, Visser sees du Plessis defending his title once again in impressive fashion by beating Chimaev at his own game.
“Khamzat’s a wrestler,” Visser said. “We want to fight him on the floor. That’s the only way to prove that you’re a real champion. Beat the guys—It’s MMA, it’s not boxing, it’s not wrestling, it’s not grappling, so you’ve got to fight. If you think you’re better than the other guy as an MMA fighter, you’ve got to fight him obviously where you’re good at, but we’re good everywhere. Dricus can wrestle, grapple, his ground-and-pound is good, submission is good, his standup’s phenomenal, we showed in the last fight. Still not where I want it to be, still not the Dricus that shows up in the gym and is a 10 out of 10 fighter. He was a seven out of 10 with the Strickland fight, but he did bring it home. He brought it home. He won all five rounds. So yeah, we want to fight Khamzat on the floor. That’s the plan.”
“What has he done?” Visser added. “Look at—he fought [Gilbert] Burns, Gilbert puts the effort in, he’s actually a lightweight. Kamaru [Usman] really gave him a proper run for his money with no preparation on the wrestling side, so that’s where we want to fight him. I believe he’s training with bigger guys now to get strength. It’s not going to help him. He needs to fight. It’s not grappling or wrestling, it is a fight. That’s what we want to do. We want to fight him on the floor and break him up in pieces on the floor. He’s just one of those annoying guys. I’ve never had an issue with [Israel Adesanya] or any one of the fighters. This guy is just annoying… I’ve had my eyes on him for a long time and Dricus is going to finish him on the floor and [Chimaev] doesn’t believe it, he doesn’t think it. That’s where we want to fight him, on the floor.”
Visser is particularly agitated by the suggestion that du Plessis would pull out of any fight without a good reason, pointing to his athlete’s recent track record. Du Plessis won the UFC middleweight title in January 2024, defended it the following August, and then defended it again this past February.
In contrast, Chimaev has become notorious for his limited availability, having not fought more than once a year since 2022. He continues to impress when he enters the cage, most recently scoring a brutal submission win over former UFC champion Robert Whittaker.
“It’s actually ridiculous how many times [Chimaev] pulled out,” Visser said. “If you look at just his last six fights or his last six supposed fights, he pulled out of three of them. Then he fought [Kevin] Holland where he was overweight. He fought Kamaru on ten days’ notice and I think Kamaru gave him a proper run for his money, ten days’ notice. I don’t know why Kamaru never asked for a rematch there.
“And then his one over Robert was also kind of ridiculous because Robert went in that fight with broken teeth, which Dricus did, Dricus broke [Whittaker’s] jaw and his teeth. So what has he done? I don’t even think he deserves a title shot. So he shouldn’t say anything. He should just walk up, get his hiding, so he can get this over and done with.”
If Visser is being honest, another reason he’s reluctant to anoint Chimaev as the next challenger for du Plessis is Chimaev’s history of missing fights. Chimaev has had a history of health problems, including a bout of COVID-19 in 2020 that may have had long-term effects on his health, but Visser thinks there are other issues at play.
“That’s his thing, his thing is pulling out,” Visser said. “He likes to be a movie star. Look at his career. I think he fought three times in the last three years. Dricus has fought three times in the last just over a year. I think over 13, 14 months we fought three fights and all three were title fights. It was two five-rounders and a four-rounder, all hard fights, title fights. [Chimaev] has fought three times in the last three years, so he’s all about the show. I don’t think he really wants to do this. He’s a movie star.”