This weekend’s UFC 319 main event bout between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev is one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year.
With Du Plessis looking to pick up his third straight title defense, and Chimaev looking to secure UFC gold in the biggest win of his career, the stakes couldn’t be higher for either fighter.
Leading up to the fight, former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya broke things down in a video for his YouTube channel, where he weighed in on the stylistic matchup between the two.
“I’ve looked at this fight two ways: Khamzat comes out, just grabs a hold of DDP, and just drags him into deep water in the first or second, and finishes him. Or DDP matches his crazy with his own type of crazy and his willingness to not quit, and then drags Khamzat into deep waters of the third, fourth, or fifth round and gets him out of there.”
“Khamzat showed his hand. He’s going to go after him from the get-go, But DDP, I think, can weather the storm and probably finish Khamzat later on. … I say Round 3 or 4, DDP. But if Khamzat is going to win, it’s going to be in the first round. It’s going to be impressive, it’s going to be spectacular, it’s going to be violent. I’m going to go with DDP.”
Adesanya Hails Dricus du Plessis as Inspiration to African Fighters
Before Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis were ever booked to fight inside the Octagon, tension between the two was brewing.
Back in 2023, DDP made waves with his “African champion” comments, ruffling feathers by noting that the “Three African Kings,” Francis Ngannou, Israel Adesanya, and Kamaru Usman don’t actually live in Africa.
Following a tense buildup to their eventual fight in 2024, it’s been nothing but respect between the two, with Adesanya notably saying that DDP is an inspiration to aspiring African fighters during his UFC 319 prediction video.
“It’s good if he’s (DDP) champion. The UFC probably wants Khamzat to be champion because he is a guy that brings a lot of eyes, says it and gets it done type s***. But I like having DDP as champion because I still think it’s inspiring to a lot of Africans, especially South Africans as well, like me, Kamaru, and Francis did for the continent as the three kings. He can do that solely as the African champ in the UFC.”
With a win, Du Plessis is optimistic that he can help finally bring the UFC to South Africa.
Khamzat Chimaev Comes in Underweight for UFC 319 Fight
While competing at welterweight, Khamzat Chimaev infamously came into fight week for his UFC 279 headliner with Nate Diaz far over the welterweight non-title fight limit of 171 pounds.
Since then, Borz has continued to fight at middleweight, however, leading up to this weekend’s fight, Chimaev’s coach notably teased a potential return to welterweight in pursuit of a second title.
On Friday, Borz then came in underweight for his UFC 319 headliner with Dricus du Plessis, weighing in at 183 pounds.
While it’s unclear why, the theory circulating among fight fans is that Chimaev wanted to show the UFC he’s keeping his weight low for a potential clash of champions at 170 if he emerges victorious.
Of course, as we saw recently with both Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev, however, the UFC doesn’t seem keen to let fighters hold up one division while fighting for a belt in another.
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