MMA coach Eric Nicksick has given his ideas on Dricus du Plessis‘ potential gameplan towards Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319.
On Saturday evening, Dricus du Plessis will face Khamzat Chimaev in the principle occasion of UFC 319. He’ll defend the UFC middleweight championship in that combat, and the expectation is that we’re going to see an absolute barnburner in Chicago.
In fact, Dricus du Plessis must be prepared for an extremely powerful problem – particularly within the first few rounds of the combat. In a recent episode of his podcast, Eric Nicksick gave his ideas on how this might all play out.
Eric Nicksick’s view on Dricus du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev
“So for Dricus, it’s his stress and his tempo. We’ve all seen it, we’ve all mentioned it — his putting appears awkward and funky — however what he does rather well is keep busy, preserve throwing issues, and he’s in a position to try this for 5 rounds. It doesn’t must be clear and even that efficient when it comes to injury and touchdown — it’s simply that he’s all the time placing one thing on the market so that you can take care of, mixing issues up.
“While you have a look at a combat like this towards Chimaev, that skill to make him work, power him to be a little bit extra defensive, and keep that output into the third, fourth, fifth rounds could possibly be a giant optimistic for him.”
“For Dricus, he has to get by the early rounds, has to discover a technique to drag Chimaev into the third, fourth, fifth rounds and look to get him drained, look to essentially capitalize in these later rounds. He’s not somebody that’s going to return on the market and put you away early — he’s executed it previously, however he hasn’t actually executed it within the UFC. He builds into fights, and has proven in these final three that he’s undoubtedly capable of have success later into the combat.”
“Dricus can defend and make the suitable selections and concede positions, however that each one works in Khamzat’s favor, and if he can suffocate him early — chain wrestle, management him, preserve him from stepping into any sort of rhythm in any respect in these first couple rounds — it makes it harder for Dricus to simply come out within the third or fourth if it will get there and simply get rolling. It’s laborious to be down 2-0, have a man throughout you, after which come out and simply take it to him. Not that he can’t do it, however it’s troublesome, particularly when it’s a man like Khamzat that you simply’re coping with on the bottom.”