Islam Makhachev's coach calls out Dricus du Plessis' trainer over bold claims about Khamzat Chimaev: "What was the purpose of that?"

Islam Makhachev's coach Javier Mendez has questioned the approach taken by Dricus du Plessis' corner ahead of the fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319.

Chimaev dominated the South African champion to capture gold, and Mendez could not understand why du Plessis’ team publicly dismissed the Chechen-born fighter's skills in the lead-up to the bout.

Mendez recalled first watching Chimaev train at the UFC Performance Institute during the pandemic and being immediately impressed by his speed and sharp hands. Meanwhile, du Plessis’ head coach, Morne Visser, had described Chimaev’s standup as amateur-level in the buildup to the fight.

Speaking about Visser's comments on The Javier & Mo Show, Mendez said:

"I'm hearing these interviews, and I'm going, why is he saying that? Is he trying to get you to know Khamzat to maybe just show him I could stand [and strike]? So knowing full well that they wanted him to go away from the game plan of which would be to take DDP down."

He added:

"And from what I remember, and I could be wrong on this, didn't his coach say we can handle him on the ground, too? Yeah. And we can handle his wrestling... But what happened? I don't know what happened. I don't know. He had a whole training camp trying to work out his takedown defense, but clearly, he couldn't. Yeah. I mean, you were talking negative about striking, you know, and what was the purpose of that?"

Check out Javier Mendez's comments below (20:11):

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Dricus du Plessis' coach vows to fix problems and beat Khamzat Chimaev

Morne Visser is determined to turn Dricus du Plessis into a champion again after his fighter’s crushing loss at UFC 319. Du Plessis was outwrestled and controlled by Khamzat Chimaev for most of the fight.

Despite the setback, Visser believes the mistakes are clear and can be fixed before chasing the belt once more. He ruled out an immediate rematch, considering that they need to work on du Plessis’ wrestling defense before stepping back in.

Talking about getting the better of Chimaev in the rematch in an interview with Submission Radio, Visser said:

"Instead of spending time to prepare for going to another fight camp to prepare for [other contenders], I would rather spend that time to fix the problem that we've got, and then go into a camp... I won't just take a fight because fights are available. I want to fix this problem because we're going to face Khamzat, and I want to destroy him this time."