Khamz has that innovator shit that can surprise opponents. They really dont know what he’s gonna do.
Dricus, ya pretty much know what he’s doing. He’s game wherever it goes, super resilient, super determined, and an elite dude.
Khamz has to be very hungry here and come to kill.
Excited for it, and also excited for when RDR gets his shot at either of these two. I think he’s something very special as well.
Quite the opposite. Chimaev is always the same, he explodes into double legs and goes 100% for the TD. It was like that vs Usman, vs Whittaker,it was like that in 90% of the fights he had — leg kicks feints and blasting like an antilope into a takedown. Dricus is the opposite. He has an awkward style, but his stand up was evenly matched with Adesanya. And that Adesanya was good. He was angry, focused... He was always prepared to fight DDP. Angry emotional Izzy is a danger. Still, even in the stand up, looking at the stats, DDP and Izzy were evenly basically... until DDP clipped him with an extended overhand that rocked him, as Izzy started to gass.
DDP plays like Topuria somewhat, too. You see in his fight vs Izzy that the first thing he did was take Adesanya down, like Illia did vs Max Holloway. Then, Holloway stood up, like Izzy, but that made Holloway, like Izzy, aware of the takedown threat. And then DDP's offensive game isn't reckless, it's like a planned, well timed pressure. He turns pressure and aggressiveness into his main defensive weapon. Since he is a heavy hitter, that is a nightmare of a stand up battle for even the best kickboxers. His kickboxing isn't as clean as Izzy, but he was even in the stand up with Izzy... His pressure was his best defense. Keeping Izzy aware of the takedown threat while also, pressuring non-stop as a way to turn offense and pressure as a defensive weapon. That doesn't give his opponents times to breathe. And he's tough... He can eat powerful punches and keep going. And since Adesanya isn't a heavy puncher, that style played well. Chimaev isn't a heavy puncher, either.
Khamzat you can expect going for the double leg and DDP will be aware of that. DDP has never been submitted nor even threatened on the ground. If you look at his Wikipedia page, he was one of the few selected South African to represent South Africa in the Olympics as a Grecco Roman fighter when younger... Not only that , but he, when younger, went to a Gracie elite gym and submitted 4 black belts from the Gracie jiu jitsu talented grapplers — a story that is true and available on YouTube. His defense on the ground, leveraging his raw strength with his skills, is totally different from Rob Whittaker. He's a tougher version of Usman, I'd imagine, because he's naturally a LHW sized guy. Combining a powerful Grecco Roman base with a big strong 205 lbs body will be hard for Khamzat to submit him in the first round.
I imagine Chimaev will take him down but he won't manage to submit him. By the second round, DDP will time Chimaev's takedown attempts — you can see through footage that DDP evolves between rounds by timing his opponents' entries, landing big offensive flurries. And the cardio is different, DDP has gone 5 rounds with high intensity. That is not in a realm Chimaev IMO would be able to deal with when he gassed vs Usman, who's of a lower weight and came to the fight on a 2 weeks short notice coming off 2 losses. I honestly see it as an interesting match up, but I definitely see the odds overestimating Chimaev A LOT. I think it's like a 60/40 or 55/45 for DDP.
