"Easter eggs" in Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev announcement highlighted by UFC Hall of Famer

UFC Hall of Famer Chael Sonnen recently commented on perhaps the hottest conversation in the MMA world today: Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev for the UFC middleweight title at UFC 319.

On Aug. 19, inside the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, an undefeated wrestling machine will fight for his first world title against a champion that continually proved his naysayers wrong.

This battle is also a classic clash of contrasting styles: Chimaev's aggressive style versus du Plessis' awkward, unorthodox attacks. However, for Sonnen, this bout is more than meets the eye. '

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The Bad Guy' told his fellow UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier in a recent episode of Good Guy / Bad Guy on YouTube:

"Not to mention, we got a couple of Easter eggs with this fight. Like, one little gem that they put down is that this is going to go down in Chicago. Now, we've all been told that Khamzat Chimaev has a hard time getting around that he can't travel anywhere besides Fight Island. So we find out in Chicago, but then we also find out that of all the fights Dana announced, this is the only one he put a backup fighter in place for."

Sonnen implied that Dana White's decision to have a back-up fighter - No.1-ranked Nassourdine Imavov - was made due to Chimaev historically pulling out of fights due to his health issues or other legal concerns.

Check out Chael Sonnen's comments below (24:39):

Chael Sonnen applauds Dricus du Plessis for "poking the bear" ahead of Khamzat Chimaev fight

Expounding more on the UFC's decision to have a back-up fighter as early as now, Sonnen mentioned that the champion Dricus du Plessis is already throwing jabs at Khamzat Chimaev.

Since debuting in the UFC back in 2020, 'Borz' had a total of six instances where his fight was either canceled or postponed due to either health problems or visa issues. During the aforementioned video, Sonnen pointed out how Dricus du Plessis used this to poke fun at his Chechen-born opponent, saying:

"And I just thought that was interesting because then when [Dricus du Plessis] went to social media, he started congratulating the backup fighter and he started telling the world that he's going to be defending his championship against the backup fighter, you know. Kind of declaring that Chimaev wouldn't get on the airplane. He wouldn't come out. He wouldn't ultimately make the walk. Which anybody that wants to poke the bear that is Chimaev, I find interesting. There's not a lot of guys that want to poke that bear." (24:57)

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Duane is an expert MMA writer at Sportskeeda with over 10 years of experience working for the likes of Philippine Star, Esquire Philippines, Playboy Philippines, etc. A major in English, he has written over 2000 articles for Sportskeeda section, extensively covering UFC and boxing fights.

Duane is a practicing MMA fighter with a 11-7 record. He is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and trains Muay Thai. His connection with MMA dates back to 2005, when he turned into a fan after watching Fedor Emelianenko defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at Pride FC - Final Conflict 2005.

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Edited by Tejas Rathi