Belal Muhammad questions Dricus du Plessis' strategy against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319: "DDP has not learned wrestling"

Belal Muhammad recently shared his thoughts on the Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dricus du Plessis title fight at UFC 319 and slammed the South African fighter's performance. Muhammad questioned du Plessis' game plan for the clash and accused him of being ill-prepared for Chimaev's wrestling.

While many wondered whether Chimaev's grappling would prove effective against du Plessis' unpredictable style, the Chechen-born fighter ufc-319-dricus-du-plessis-vs-khamzat-chimaev-full-video-highlights" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">dominated 'Stillknocks' on the ground over five rounds and won the fight via unanimous decision to win the UFC middleweight championship.

In a recent YouTube video (via @Home_of_Fight on X), Muhammad pointed out that du Plessis had nothing for Chimaev and posed zero threat in the cage. Questioning the South African fighter's strategy, he said:

"DDP has not learned wrestling since the [Derek] Brunson fight. I called it. I thought it was gonna be an easy fight for Khamzat... And it was. He dominated it. Dana said it was four 10-8 rounds, and I had it the same... For Khamzat, it was too easy to take him down and hold him there... I’m just wondering what their game plan was. What they thought was going to happen if they underestimated the wrestling?"

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He continued:

"DDP got away with a lot of stuff because his matchups were favorable, no grapplers. Now we know he needs to fix a lot of mistakes; he needs to get better."

Dricus du Plessis' coach addresses potential immediate rematch against Khamzat Chimaev

It looks like Dricus du Plessis isn't interested in an immediate rematch against Khamzat Chimaev. The South African fighter's coach recently dismissed the possibility of facing 'Borz' again next and admitted that they had significant amounts of work to do.

In an interview with Submission Radio, du Plessis' head coach, Morne Visser, shared his two cents on the matter and said:

"I've been asked, 'Do you want to do him a rematch?' I said, 'Absolutely not.' Obviously, we'd like to fight him very soon again, but there is no way I'll take the rematch with us being a little bit behind in our Russian style of wrestling. That is what it is, nothing else. He just knows how to control you on the floor."

He continued:

"In the meantime, we've got to fix our sh*t asap, and I know what to do. I know exactly what to do and where to do it. It's a big change, we're going to have to do a big move to fix things."

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Edited by Nishant Zende.