Chris Weidman can’t ignore the cardio aspect of the UFC 319 headliner.
Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) defends his middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in Saturday’s main event (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at United Center in Chicago.
Although Chimaev has been putting a lot of work in for his cardio with coach Sam Calavitta, Weidman thinks Du Plessis is a bigger opponent than anyone “Borz” has ever faced.
“The question marks in my mind are: Has he ever fought a guy the size of DDP? I don’t think so,” Weidman told MMA Junkie. “Can you control a guy like that and hold onto your cardio with a guy like that? Does he have to finish him in the first two or three rounds? I think. A lot of cardio comes down to not how good of shape you’re in or your resting heart rate. It comes down to genetically the kind of muscle you have, how explosive you are, the comfortability that you have inside the octagon in all aspects.”
Weidman agrees with the narrative that Chimaev has to get an early finish to win the fight.
“The only way I see Chimaev winning this fight is by a finish,” Weidman said. “I don’t see him finishing him anything past three rounds. I think he has to win this fight in the first round. He needs to land a big shot on the feet and look to bring it to the ground for a submission or a ground-and-pound TKO. I don’t see him winning a five-round fight.
“If you had to pick someone not to be tired against – standing with Du Plessis in the fourth or fifth round while you’re tired, and he doesn’t know what’s coming, you don’t know what’s coming, and he’s big and strong and sloppy and tenacious, it can be a real problem.”
Chimaev visibly slowed down in his two career decision wins over Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. He is scheduled for his first five-round fight against Du Plessis, which is why Weidman is ultimately siding with the champion to retain his title.
“The cardio aspect of it is just too much,” Weidman said. “Any time it’s a close fight I have to go to cardio, and I know Chimaev has been working on his cardio, but sometimes when you work so hard on something and you get into the fight and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, I’m still tired.’ Is it almost worse that you did all that stuff, and it doesn’t change the way you thought it was going to. Is that a brain F of itself? I think DDP is going to win this fight just because of that.
“If DDP loses, he’s going to get finished in the first round. If I had to put all my money on it, I’ll go with DDP on this one.”
