Dricus Du Plessis called out everyone he could after putting on a masterclass against Sean Strickland at UFC 312. Besides Alex Pereira, the South African had his eyes on Khamzat Chimaev, who Dana White hinted to be in line as the next title contender. Du Plessis appeared confident about stopping the undefeated juggernaut in his tracks. “I want Khamzat next. I think he deserves a hiding,” Pereira had said.

He also claimed that with the fight against Khamzat, he would like to “make sure that there’s no question I’m the GOAT of middleweight.” However, American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) head coach Javier Mendez believes that the middleweight champion would be making a huge mistake by presuming that fighting Chimaev would be a cakewalk.

There’s no doubt that Du Plessis is quite high on confidence owing to his unorthodox fighting style, which is claimed by the MMA community to be as effective as it comes, and did the job spectacularly last weekend. So it doesn’t come as a surprise when he was also confident in claiming that he’ll do an elementary work on Khamzat Chimaev. However, Mendez claims that he needs to have a proper game plan to tame the Chechen wolf.

When it comes to Pereira, many have said that taking him down would do the trick, since he’s an exceptional talent as a standup fighter. But fighting Chimaev is vastly different from fighting ‘Poatan’. Therefore, Mendez has warned the South African that he will find himself in deep waters against ‘Borz’ and needs to get his tactics straight on the grappling aspect of the fight.

“If he’s the next guy, the next Challenger, oh boy you know you better be able to deal with [what] he brings to the table so if, you know, you think that you’re going to be able to keep that from going to the ground and you, better if you if you can keep him from taking you down, okay then you can say whatever but I don’t know what’s going to happen with anybody. The way I looked at him and the way I see his grappling expertise that he’s a monster man, so that’s a fight we’re all going to want to see. I’m excited about that one, I’m pretty sure the UFC is going to put that one together that’s the fight to make for them that is the fight to make and also the Du Pless has already said that’s the guy I want him, I don’t want anybody else, I want him before prayer,” Javier Mendez stated on his YouTube podcast.

“He’s [du Plessis] taking the tougher fight, in my opinion. Pereira, if you stand up, he can kill you… but on the ground is where he [Dricus] has the best chance,” Javier Mendez further added. “Khamzat, it’s not a matter of when you’re going to the ground [or] if you’re going to go [but] is what are you going to do when he takes you to the ground? You know, that’s what’s going to happen.”

It is hardly a secret that Chimaev is always looking to shoot for the takedown. And when he does it, it’s complemented by blinding speed as showcased in his last outing against a decorated veteran like Robert Whittaker. Hence, while suggesting Du Plessis considers that, the ‘Team Khabib’ head coach added, “He [Khamzat] will take you down and if you don’t, you know if you’re not careful, he’ll take you out just like he did with Robert Whittaker. I mean, he’s that slick.” Interestingly, although Mendez, a significant member of the Khabib camp, had high praise for Khamzat had a somewhat strained relationship with the Eagle.

However, according to Khamzat, that was a result of media hype and his inexperience in handling that. “I just broke into the UFC, they started comparing me with Khabib and other fighters. With Adlan Amagov, in particular. Of course, when you achieve some good results, they say ‘oh, he’s like Khabib or Adlan Amagov.’ But everyone has their own achievement. I’ve got mine, Khabib and Adlan have got theirs. Every fighter wants to create his own legacy. It doesn’t feel good to be compared to anybody else,” Chimaev revealed in an interview with Adam Zubayraev (via Red Corner MMA) last year.

He continued, “I just got triggered as someone said that Khabib would smash me, so I responded to that dude. Although I should have not done it. I said, ‘Okay, if Khabib wants to smash me, I am ready to smash him,’ and they just hyped that up as if I challenged him. All the media outlets made it viral, ‘Khamzat wants to smash Khabib.’ I would never fight Khabib. I would not fight my countrymen.”

Meanwhile, Khamzat Chimaev had his eyes on the fight last weekend when Du Plessis defeated Sean Strickland for a second time. But that decisive win didn’t impress the undefeated star all that much, and he even tweeted out his thoughts about it as a message to the middleweight champion, which prompted a response.

Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus Du Plessis go back and forth after UFC 312

So, the question is – what did Khamzat Chimaev think of the Dricus Du Plessis’ second title defense? Well, he simply called it “biggest bulls–t is this fight.” But the champion didn’t take these words kindly, understandably, and launched a response dissing his opponent, firstly, by taking aim at his lack of English vocabulary and then talking about his inability to win a title, primarily due to his inactivity in the UFC.

“I think he tweeted something, he actually did tweet it, because when his tweets make sense it’s his agent, and when it’s just random English words, it’s him. He said this fight [is a bullsh*t fight]. Well, try to get to a fight,” Dricus Du Plessis told Full Send MMA. “Couldn’t get the welterweight title, definitely not getting the middleweight title. Talk about a waste of potential.”

Well, Javier Mendez has given his verdict. So we want to know how you, the fans, see this potential fight panning out. Share with us your thoughts in the comment section down below.