Dricus Du Plessis has a lot of training to do if he wants to beat Khamzat Chimaev.
It cost the former UFC champion 10 fights in the Octagon for someone to finally find him out, that was the unbeaten Khamzat Chimaev.
Du Plessis suffered his first UFC loss through unanimous decision after Chimaev had surpassed him five rounds in the main event of UFC 319 weeks ago.
After the title loss, the former champion said that his comeback will be 'unthinkable for the average spirit'.
On Submission Radio, the head coach Morné Visser of Du Plessis claimed that they need six months to tackle the mistakes against Chimaev and to work more on their struggle to win a possible rematch.
A former champion thinks that more is needed to cancel a hunter that is as competent as Chimaev.
Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC
Dominick Cruz says that Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus du Plessis 'looked like two completely different level'
Dominick Cruz was recently asked for Du Plessis who might joined him as a two -time champion.
Cruz, a UFC hunter who had become analyst, commented on the opportunities of Du Plessis in a rematch against Chimaev.
“He says six months [of training]I will fill some holes. But when I look at that, that's not six months, “said Cruz on the Anik & Florian Podcast.
“He didn't separate once, like nothing, right?” Cruz said about the grasp fairs in du Persis vs. Chimaev.
“He just has never been put on his back for so long, I don't think. And you must have an attack from the bottom to get up. If your work is collected, you are used to stand up and escape, that is a bit defensive. So if you are on the bottom and you are held, you must have a kind of offensive attack of the soil.
“Like, you have to go a single bone [takedown]. You must be out of balance to get a double leg, create space, go to a headlock. And then you have to make a kind of attack from the bottom, a kind of attack, so that the person on top of you stops the blanket.
“He couldn't really create that,” said Cruz about Du Persis.
“If you look at the differential in that specific fight, it just looked like two completely different level -hunters. Because the divorce was not there.
“Now I could say that if DDP got away once, I would have something completely different to say. But he didn't do that. And he couldn't. He couldn't get away once. He couldn't divorce once …”
Khamzat Chimaev is perhaps out for the rest of the year
After the title win of Chimaev earlier this month, there was the champion that returned to fight UFC 321 on 25 October in Abu Dhabi.
#5-ranged competitor Reinier de Ridder obliged to fight against Chimaev in a rapid change, but 'RDR' and Anthony Hernandez have been booked to be at UFC Vancouver on October 18.
Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho are also in the title discussion. The top middle weights Headline UFC Paris on September 6.
With these matchups on the deck there is a possibility that Chimaev no longer fights in 2025.