Daniel Cormier expected more from Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319.
Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) lost his middleweight title in dominant fashion to Khamzat Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) when he was heavily outgrappled in Saturday’s main event at United Center in Chicago.
Cormier was very surprised how easily Chimaev was able to take Du Plessis down and control him, resulting in 12 takedowns landed and over 21 minutes of control time.
“It was very impressive by Chimaev,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “If I’m being honest, though, it was a little disappointing on the side of Du Plessis because he knew the challenge. I don’t know if they prepared the right way for what challenge was in front of them. You know when you’re fighting Chimaev, you’ve got to be able to get up if taken down, and you’ve got to make the takedowns hard. He wasn’t able to do either of those things tonight, and now he’s the former champ.”
Chimaev is not short of options for his first title defense. However, Cormier is unsure if any of the top middleweight contenders can dethrone Chimaev right now.
“Reinier de Ridder loves grappling, so he can present some problems there,” Cormier said. “He has good striking. (Anthony) ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez has wrestling, cardio and boxing. He could present some problems. Obviously (Caio) Borralho and (Nassourdine) Imavov are tremendous strikers. They present problems there. But all these guys should be running to the wrestling room right now.
“(His future opponents should be) Ggetting with a coach that can prepare them for the wrestling exchanges because the controls that Chimaev uses, the wrist fighting, the hand fighting, the forward pressure, these are all things that you learn in the wrestling room as a kid, and then you apply them to fighting. I don’t know if one training camp is going to be enough to help you close the gap, because Chimaev is so good in those areas.”
