Khamzat Chimaev has fought mostly in the welterweight division in the UFC, where he rag-dolled most of his opponents. But when he made his way into the middleweight division due to weight misses in his attempts to make it to 170lbs, Chimaev looked a bit overwhelmed in his first fight, although he was able to recover with a 1st-round win in his second fight. So, there might be some doubts as to how well Chimaev can perform against the champion, Dricus Du Plessis, at UFC 319.

With just 19 days to go before the fight, Khamzat Chimaev appears to have something to work on ahead of the encounter against Dricus du Plessis, as one of his former training partners revealed some tendencies that ‘Stillknocks’ has inside the Octagon. Reinier de Ridder, who had previously trained with the middleweight champion, had previously mentioned backing ‘Stillknocks’ to beat Chimaev at UFC 319. But in a recent interview, he mentioned that du Plessis makes use of a technique, which he claims is “stupid.”

We all know that there is no other unorthodox fighter quite like Dricus du Plessis. He may not have the textbook techniques, but Reinier de Ridder claims that one of those moves has worked out pretty well for the South African, which involves the champion putting his hands up to block combinations. And guess what? Khamzat Chimaev could look to exploit this when he fights du Plessis at UFC 319.

“One thing that he does very well is, and he did that in the Whittaker fight, some of the stuff he does is just very basic. Like when a guy comes in with combinations, he just puts his hands up,” Reinier de Ridder told ESPN. “There’s not a lot of fighters who do that very well. It is stupid, but he just does it very well… the cool thing is that he can keep going, keep doing that stuff in [round] three, four, and five as well.”

Well, Khamzat Chimaev may have had just two middleweight fights, but that does not mean he cannot beat a championship-caliber fighter if he’s given an inch. Look at what he did to Robert Whittaker, a former champion. So, what does Dricus du Plessis have to do to beat Chimaev? A Hall of Fame legend claims that he needs to beat the Chechen-born at his own game. Here’s what he had to say.

Michael Bisping advises Dricus du Plessis to wrestle Khamzat Chimaev

Recently, Dricus du Plessis revealed that his coach, Morne Visser, had put a $10K prize on his head for anyone in his gym who could take him down. While perfecting takedown defense is alright, Michael Bisping believes that the South African star has to be ready to take the fight to the ground for the most part at UFC 319. Khamzat Chimaev has taken down some of the best fighters with a great defense, while maintaining his clean sheet with a 100 percent takedown defense. So Bisping believes du Plessis needs to be able to do what nobody has been able to do to ‘Borz’.

“Dricus du Plessis, I mean, you cannot doubt this guy. He’s not intimidated… He’s big. He’s strong. He wrestled. He’s got great judo. He’s got knockout power. He’s had a nose job, so he’s got a great gas tank now as well,” Michael Bisping stated on his YouTube channel. “[Chimaev’s] going to get you down. Look at what he did to Usman… That’s how good Khamzat Chimaev is at wrestling. So if you try and just do everything you can to avoid him and get away and run, you’re just running away the entire time. He’s gonna get you.”

Well, Dricus du Plessis is a confident man and believes he can shut Khamzat Chimaev down. Well, we are just a few days away from finding that out, so let us know what you think in the comments down below.