The towering Swede once fought at welterweight, yet he appeared several weight classes above career middleweight Dricus Du Plessis when they crossed paths in Chicago ahead of UFC 319. Now, Khamzat Chimaev enters as the favorite to dethrone the seemingly unbeatable South African, who remains undefeated in the UFC since October 2020. But, fans were quick to notice the stark size difference as the two shared a friendly moment in the Windy City. They’ll officially face off for the first time on Thursday at the pre-fight press conference, followed by a final staredown at the ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday. However, it seems Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus Du Plessis are helpless as UFC self-sabotages their Chicago event. How, you ask?

They are powerless because, despite being elite athletes at the top of their division, UFC 319’s hype was stolen — and in many ways, self-sabotaged, by the promotion itself. Major headlines surrounding the UFC’s Paramount deal, the White House card, and Conor McGregor and Jon Jones re-entering the testing pool have overshadowed the buildup for UFC 319. Now, retired mixed martial artist Chael Sonnen has stepped in to break it all down.

‘The American Gangster’  took to his YouTube channel to discuss Khamzat Chimaev’s intense training ahead of his 10th professional fight with UFC . While breaking down why the hype for UFC 319 had been derailed, the 48-year-old pointed to a whirlwind of other UFC headlines stealing the spotlight. “We get this White House news, Tom Aspinall becomes champion, Jon Jones is gone, Conor gets a mohawk, the BMF title’s being contested in New Orleans. Like there was so much going on, it was hard to shine the light on anything,” Sonnen explained. He likened the attention to “butter” being spread too thin across multiple stories. But now that things are settling down, Sonnen insists UFC 319 is shaping up to be massive: “This is the fight. This is turning huge. There’s going to be records set on this at the gate alone.”

To highlight the “crazy” antics of Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev, Sonnen then recalled a resurfaced video involving Dricus Du Plessis beating five Jiu Jitsu practitioners in a Quintet style matchup in South Africa. “They’re not playing around. They punch and kick each other all day. This isn’t soft stuff. They’re beautiful, conditioned athletes, and there were five of them,” Sonnen said, urging fans to go watch the clip. He then added a joking remark, “Yes, by the way, they would bury him in the desert somewhere, finally,” before clarifying that Du Plessis put the work on these five men. According to Sonnen, it was a striking demonstration of Du Plessis’ athleticism and grit inside the gym.

In the end, Sonnen also pointed to Chimaev’s wrestling grind, revealing he had been training with Abdulrashid Sadulaev, a name casual MMA fans might not recognize but one that holds legendary status in Russia. “In the country of Russia, the number one sport is wrestling. It is not soccer… it’s wrestling,” Sonnen emphasized, explaining that Sadulaev is widely considered the best wrestler in the history of the country. Known for dominating Olympic and world-level competition, Sadulaev has also been a challenge for American wrestlers like Kyle Snyder and David Taylor.

Sonnen noted that while Borz wrestled Sadulaev, he did not win – “not any more than Dricus beat up those five dudes,” underscoring that both fighters had been pushing themselves against elite, almost unbeatable opposition in training. But despite Khamzat Chimaev holding the record for the fastest wins by a UFC debutant, many warn that his biggest challenge against Dricus Du Plessis won’t be his opponent, but his own conditioning. And now, the 31-year-old weighed in on whether that statement holds any truth, or misses the mark entirely.

Khamzat Chimaev fires back at conditioning critics ahead of Du Plessis showdown

Just days ago, in the latest UFC 319 Countdown video, the Chechen powerhouse declared, “I’m focused on me. I’m ready for everything… I’m ready for him. Everyone says, ‘Oh, this is a title fight for you.’ I just feel the same… Dricus is a strong guy with a lot of good skills. But not my level… I don’t see anywhere he can be better than me. So, I’m going for him, going for the world. Bring one more hit home. Now we’re going for big gold.”

Since his UFC debut in 2020, Chimaev has been nearly untouchable. With the fastest wins in UFC history and an impressive list of opponents, the “hype” criticism carries little weight. At UFC 308, he demolished Robert Whittaker in the first round, forcing a frantic tap to a face crank that even broke some of Whittaker’s teeth. By comparison, Dricus Du Plessis also defeated Whittaker during his rise at UFC 290, but it took him two rounds to secure the finish.

For Khamzat Chimaev, this fight isn’t about lasting five rounds, it’s about overwhelming his opponent with pace and punishment until there’s no way back. But cardio remains the great equalizer in MMA, and Chimaev has shown signs of fading in later stages, as seen in his three-round bouts against Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. Still, his camp is confident. That said, the question is, who will have his hand raised: Khamzat Chimaev or Dricus Du Plessis?