Sean Strickland wonders how Dricus Du Plessis will react to Khamzat Chimaev’s dominant ground game.
Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) defends his UFC middleweight title against undefeated Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in the UFC 319 headliner on Aug. 16 from United Center in Chicago (ESPN+, ESPN, pay-per-view).
Strickland lost to Du Plessis twice by decision in title fights, and spent quite a bit of time training with Chimaev years ago at Xtreme Couture. The former middleweight champion thinks it’ll come down to if Du Plessis can remain mentally unfazed from Chimaev’s early onslaught.
“Dricus has better standup than Chimaev, but Chimaev has pretty crazy grappling,” Strickland told Red Corner MMA. “I’ve been training with these f*cking Dagi terrorists my entire life. I know how to get up from these guys. I can withstand the storm. I don’t know if he’s encountered that level of wrestling to where it might get him a little off guard.
“But if he could handle it, get up, and work his way up – I mean, it’s kind of hard because it was a long time ago, but Brad (Tavares) took him down and held him down, so it’s like, he just really has to be ready for an extreme amount of pressure on the ground. If he can withstand that, he’s going to beat him.”
Strickland says Chimaev is only capable of being the hammer, not the nail, in a fight.
“He’s like a soft man,” Strickland said. “You take someone like Dricus, Dricus will f*cking die. That man doesn’t give a f*ck. Chimaev wins off being a bad guy. ‘I’m a bad, tough, scary f*cking terrorist.’ If you look at everybody who he’s fought, that pulls his card: ‘All right, f*ck it – let’s go.’ Sh*t starts changing. I just think he’s some kind of a bully. Nothing wrong with being a bully. It’s a fight – be a bully. But it’s like, if you’re going to be a bully and somebody fights back, you better keep that same energy up.”