The middleweight champion of the UFC has had a completely different path to the top than his next opponent.
Dricus Du Plessis has clearly had Khamzat Chimaev in his sights for some time prior to their final meeting on UFC 319.
Both men have achieved every success in the Achthoek, but their processes have been very different.
Chimaev has made a point of it to take precautions before August 16 to ensure that he can fight Night Healthy, with earlier health problems that slightly delay his momentum.
When the unbeaten phenomenon arrived in the UFC for the first time, he quickly shot up to become one of the most exciting contenders of the promotion, which led to some daring claims.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Dricus Du Plessis ignores the hype that some believed that Khamzat Chimaev was championship level at his debut
After Khamzat Chimaev won his first pair of fights in the Octagon for the first time, there was almost a sense of inevitability around him.
He had not yet fought a top candidate in welterweight or middleweight, but he was already spoken as a potential future champion who could become a huge star.
This story changed somewhat after his fighting with people like Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman, where two opponents at a high level could ask Chimaev many more questions.
In a recent interview with New York Post Sports, Dricus Du Plessis was asked about the hype surrounded by his next opponent when he first arrived in the UFC.
'Still Knocks' responded to the feeling that Chimaev could have go directly into a title fight when he first signed the promotion by referring to the Usman fight on UFC 294 where the Scorecards were controversial.
“There is no way. People say that if he made his debut, he could have been a champion.
Dricus Du Plessis has been given a much stable approach than Khamzat Chimaev to reach the top
While Dricus Du Plessis also put together a win -streak who quickly saw him climb to the top of the division, he did not receive almost the same amount of hype as Khamzat Chimaev.
'Stillknocks' admits that although he was already an experienced competitor when he first arrived in the UFC, he benefited from a more gradual turnout, a step in the opposition at every outing.
He is convinced that he could have reached the top even faster if it was not for problems that were outside of his control, but in the end his goal was to turn champion before he turned 30, regardless of the path he took to do it.
“No, I certainly needed time. I mean, I did that climb easily. The reason why, there was a period of two years in which I only fought twice, that was Covid. I was not allowed to travel … Then I fought three times in seven months … I had big leaps from where I started.