During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, controversial MMA personality Dillon Danis offered his analysis of the recent UFC middleweight title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev. In typical Danis fashion, he didn’t hold back his opinions on what went wrong for the South African champion.
“Khamzat’s so easy. You don’t understand. Like that style is easy, man,” Danis said when discussing Chimaev’s performance against du Plessis. The submission specialist was particularly critical of du Plessis’s game plan and execution during their encounter.
According to Danis, the fundamental issue with du Plessis’s approach was his failure to make Chimaev work and tire himself out during the grappling exchanges. “The thing that Dricus did wrong was… he didn’t try. So like, I get what his game plan was not to give up the back and try stay against cage and lock and play guard. But his guard wasn’t good enough,” Danis explained.
He elaborated on the tactical errors he observed: “So what Dricus was doing when he was not trying to get up and trying to stay against the fence and trying to avoid the submission, he’s not making Khamzat tired… He didn’t do anything to get him tired. You know what I mean?”
Danis drew comparisons to other competitors who have faced similar grappling-heavy opponents, noting how active resistance and attempts to escape can drain an opponent’s energy. He referenced how others like Kamaru Usman tried to actively fight out of positions when facing Chimaev, which led to the Chechen becoming more fatigued throughout their contest.
“Usman fought. He tried to get out of the positions and actually tried to fight him. That’s why he was getting tired that whole fight. But he didn’t do anything to get him tired,” Danis continued, highlighting what he saw as a passive approach from du Plessis.
The analysis didn’t stop there. Danis suggested that du Plessis was too focused on avoiding damage rather than creating problems for Chimaev. “He wasn’t trying to get up. He wasn’t trying to. He was just trying to avoid the the hooks and trying to avoid the takedown. The shots.”
Despite his criticism, Danis acknowledged the difficulty of controlling someone for extended periods, noting that what Chimaev accomplished wasn’t easy from a technical standpoint. However, he maintained that du Plessis’s approach was too conservative and didn’t create the kind of scrambles and energy expenditure that could have turned the tide.
Danis is currently preparing for his own return to competition. He is scheduled to face Warren Spencer at Misfits 22 on August 30 in Manchester, England.
