The UFC middleweight division is nothing less than a Hunger Games Panem arena right now. In the jungle of UFC, two alphas are about to clash inside the Octagon and turn it into a battlefield. Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev is afoot and this fight, if booked, would be one of the most electrifying clashes that will go down in UFC history. Dana White has already revealed that ‘Borz’ will fight for the title next and we all know how dangerous his ground-and-pound game is.

So when it comes to Dricus Du Plessis, the powerful striker with a bizarre and whimsical fight stance, the fans have yet to see his defense against a wrestler like Chimaev. And yes, Chimaev might seem unbeatable but every fighter has their tells—signs and weaknesses that can be encroached upon to defeat them.

Robert Whittaker has come into the mix and the former 185lbs kingpin knows a thing or two about Chimaev and ‘Stillknocks’ because he has fought against both of them. He lost to DDP in 2023 at UFC 290. After racking up back-to-back victories against Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov, Whittaker then lost to Chimaev at UFC 308. So he pretty much saw the dangerous sides of both the fighters.

While speaking to Submission Radio’s Denis Shkuratov, the Aussie star said, “I can’t see anyone stopping Chimaev’s takedowns. His takedowns are so hard to stop. I mean his wrestling and his grappling is just yeah, it’s super high-level. I guess the question always comes in like, can DDP be dragged into those later rounds? Can he get through the first wrestling? Grappling exchanges? And then start to capitalize on his just like persistence. Like doggedness to go away ’cause because honestly, if Chimaev can’t get DDP out of there, DDP wins like; DDP wins almost every fight. You can’t get rid of him, right?”

So if DDP can endure the first few rounds of grappling from Chimaev, then he can unleash his unpredictable, often unorthodox style. Whittaker further said, “He’s like mold.” So just like mold, (Whittaker mentioned that it was not in a bad way) DDP can put pressure on his opponents and weigh them down until he wins. DDP’s unpredictable style combining judo, wrestling, and kickboxing often seems like a dance and even playful at times with a focus on utilizing his long limbs to catch the opponent by surprise. And just like Whittaker, even Michael ‘Venom’ Page perceived something others missed about DDP.

Michael ‘Venom’ Page exposes the trick DDP can use to beat Chimaev

While speaking on the Overdogs podcast, Page said, “If anybody was to [beat up Chimaev], it would be Dricus. Because that is the muscular endurance. If you look at some of these fights nowadays. Merab, Dricus, these guys have the muscular endurance to be fighting at 7 the whole fight. Some guys start slow and try to build up, or like I said, like a Khamzat. He starts at 10 and he tries to maintain that. And it’s almost impossible to maintain that.”

He further said that just like how ‘Remember the Name’ is relentless like Sisyphus rolling the stone, even DDP is tenacious- it is hard to break him. So the only way to get an adamant fighter like DDP out of the game is to do it in the first round. The man fights like he has to save his family from a huge mafia lord. On the other hand, while Chimaev has remained dominant throughout his stint in the promotion, his UFC 273 fight against Gilbert Burns showed he was human. This, coupled with his health issues, brings up concerns about his stamina and endurance inside the cage.

Chimaev does have a gas tank with an expiry time because, during his fight against Kamaru Usman, he started to gas out in the latter rounds. This is where Whittaker and Page think DDP can take over the fight. Since Chimaev is explosive like the rabbit and Du Plessis is steady like the tortoise in the race, this might cause a problem.

Nevertheless, ‘Borz’ has shown his power against Whittaker and redeemed himself, so if he uses the explosiveness properly, it might help him again. What do you think though? Can DDP defeat Chimaev?