Kamaru Usman calls out Dricus du Plessis' team for overlooking Khamzat Chimaev's "pretty damn important skill" at UFC 319

Kamaru Usman recently expressed his discontent with Dricus du Plessis' team for their approach towards the Khamzat Chimaev fight. They were overconfident about du Plessis' chances against the unbeaten fighter, according to the former welterweight champion.

Du Plessis failed miserably to stop the wrestling prowess of Chimaev, who was successful in 12 takedowns in 17 attempts. Their matchup went the full 25 minutes, with Chimaev maintaining 21:40 of control time on the ground. All three judges scored the title fight 50-44 in favor of Chimaev, who became the new 185-pound champion via unanimous decision.

In a recent episode of the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Usman criticized Du Plessis’ camp for underestimating Chimaev’s grappling, which eventually cost them in the main event:

''The one thing that I will say about it and even in the leadup is I felt that, I don't want to say Dricus [du Plessis] was too overconfident. I felt that, even the team with the way that they were talking, with the way that they were kind of the lack of respect for Khamzat like, 'oh yeah, you can't beat us with just one skill. You think you're just going to beat us with one skill.' That's a pretty damn important skill, it's a big one to overlook it and I think they kind of overlooked, they didn't take it that serious, they felt okay if we survive one we're good. But you got to survive one, two, three, four, five, and you just couldn't do it. I mean, he was crucified.''

Check out Kamaru Usman's comments below (12:02):

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MMA coach believes Dricus du Plessis can reclaim his belt back

Dricus du Plessis' head coach Morne Visser was confident ahead of his title defense against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319. However, 'Stillknocks' lost his middleweight throne due to a lackluster performance.

During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Visser vowed to get the 185-pound belt back to South Africa:

''Watch this space, guys, You've just maybe met the worst, worst losers ever in your life: Me and Dricus, and I'm not sleeping until we've got that belt back. I know everybody's laughing and say, 'Yeah, Dricus was exposed.' I'm a bad loser. Dricus is a bad loser. It's going to take whatever it takes for us to get that belt back, ASAP...we'll be back again and surprise you of just taking that belt back again." [26:14]