Who will have the strength advantage between DDP and Khamzat?

[Thy]

face muscles are the only important ones.

 

[Neck&Neck]

Khamzat is only strong in short spurts
His body is known for having trouble will illnesses

 

[AndrewGolota48]

I couldn't say who is the stronger of the 2 but cardio seems to be DDP's real strength whereas Khamzat seems to attack early and tire himself out if he isn't able to overwhelm his opponent.
it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Which is funny considering DDP is the jacked up beach muscle guy and Khamzat is lean and doesn't have to cut that much at 185....but Khamzat is so fast twitch.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

DDP is a damn gorilla

Khamzat has more technical prowess, which when combined with his strength is probably sumn else

I don’t know whats gonna happen this fight except what everyone else knows

Khamzat has the advantage the first 2-rounds, and DDP with that dawg in him if it goes past

 

[MMAFanCal]

Those are separate issues though. Yes pretty much everyone acknowledges that DDP will be a huge threat if he wears Khamzat down (as Usman was starting to but only had 3 rounds), but when fresh Khamzat will likely have little trouble taking him down whenever he feels like it. With Gilbert Khamzat was just afraid to engage on the ground due to his BJJ, it's not like he had any trouble actually taking Burns down whenever he felt like it.

Agreed. Khamzat will try to freight train Dricus. That is the one thing everyone can be sure of.

 

[Captain Insano]

We won't know until Khamzat fights a real contender!

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Dricus, most likely. He has the bulldozer strength that will help him fight back against those takedown attempts. He fights at 215 lbs and most likely, will come in heavier than Khamzat. Carries a lot of lean muscle mass/six pack.

Similar frame size. Khamzat is slightly taller, but Dricus has the longer reach/longer arms. Dricus has the crazy physique.

View attachment 1094990

View attachment 1094991

Dricus looks like he has a normal frame for 185, he's just jacked up with muscle. It's definitely not a situation like Poatan where his frame alone makes it almost impossible to make the weight. Put it this way, DDP has to actively bulk his ass off to be big at 185.

 

[ninja boot]

Which is funny considering DDP is the jacked up beach muscle guy and Khamzat is lean and doesn't have to cut that much at 185....but Khamzat is so fast twitch.

exactly how i see it too.
Overall I enjoy the fight styles of both of them and am usually conflicted but this is likely the fight i'm looking forward to the most.

 

[Hezekiah]

Those are separate issues though. Yes pretty much everyone acknowledges that DDP will be a huge threat if he wears Khamzat down (as Usman was starting to but only had 3 rounds), but when fresh Khamzat will likely have little trouble taking him down whenever he feels like it. With Gilbert Khamzat was just afraid to engage on the ground due to his BJJ, it's not like he had any trouble actually taking Burns down whenever he felt like it.

The more point for me is will he be able to keep down a bigger, stronger man who is also a very competent grappler.

 

[MMAFanCal]

Dricus looks like he has a normal frame for 185, he's just jacked up with muscle. It's definitely not a situation like Poatan where his frame alone makes it almost impossible to make the weight. Put it this way, DDP has to actively bulk his ass off to be big at 185.

Alex looks lanky even when he weighs 232 lbs. He has a huge bone structure, but not much mass.

Dricus is actually a very big middlweight. Proof is, how he has the death look and is extremely lanky at 185 lbs. He has a big bone structure. Once he hydrates back up, he looks completely different.

Also, remember a muscle cell is about twice as heavy as fat cell so a muscular guy who looks slimmer can actually be heavier than someone who looks bigger, albeit with more fat.

Weigh-ins




Once he hydrates and carbs back up, he puts on 30 lbs back on in the 24 hours and fills out a lot. He officially weighs in around 215 lbs fight night.

 

[Snazyrazy]

How you conveniently ignored that Dricus finished all of them and even after getting his back against the wall, he came back and won via finish. Even against Till, Dricus before nose surgery gassed out punching like 60 times in the face until the bell saved Till. For round 2, he recovered from a big setback due to gassing and submitted him. It is a marathon. Not a sprint.

You could also make the argument that Khamzat had problems against a glorified 155' lbs'er Gilbert Burns and a 190 lbs off-the-couch Usman past round 1.

Well i mean of you get finished in 2 minutes, it was in fact a sprint?

 

[188912345]

I think if we go by "gym bro" strength, Usman was also probably stronger than Khamzat.
Didn't help him too much in their grappling exchanges.

Last time we saw Dricus against a wrestler, he did end up in a lot of compromising situations that would be much riskier to end up in against someone like Khamzat.
He spent large parts of round 1 vs Brunson on bottom, since then he has only faced strikers.

Also, when Khamzat was at WW and "former LW" Burns got in deep on a single leg against him, he couldn't even lift his leg up from the canvas.

As for the relevancy of both those fights, Dricus vs Brunson was in March 2023, Khamzat vs Burns was in April 2022, at a lower weightclass.

A lot has changed since then.
Khamzat is no longer overtraining or draining himself to get to 170, Dricus got his nose fixed.

 

[MDoza]

Tough to call, but I’m taking Khamzat.

Khamzat has the bigger frame, and I think his flirtations with the WW division were holding him back. Now that he’s decided to be a full time MW, I think he’ll be even stronger than we’ve seen in previous fights.

 

[MMAFanCal]

Well i mean of you get finished in 2 minutes, it was in fact a sprint?

For that, you are believing Khamzat will finish Dricus in 2 minutes. OK!

 

[MMAFanCal]

I think if we go by "gym bro" strength, Usman was also probably stronger than Khamzat.
Didn't help him too much in their grappling exchanges.

No, he wasn't. Usman is a solid welterweight. Usman is a much smaller than Khamzat. He himself said he weighed 190 lbs fight night. He needs more mass to be a solid middlweight. Usman is no more than 5'10" if you look at his pictures side by side with Khamzat.

 

[ElLunico]

DDP but Khamzat has the edge in technique. I can't wait to see these guys lock up.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Alex looks lanky even when he weighs 232 lbs. He has a huge bone structure, but not much mass.

Dricus is actually a very big middlweight. Proof is, how he has the death look and is extremely lanky at 185 lbs. He has a big bone structure. Once he hydrates back up, he looks completely different.

Also, remember a muscle cell is about twice as heavy as fat cell so a muscular guy who looks slimmer can actually be heavier than someone who looks bigger, albeit with more fat.

Weigh-ins

View attachment 1094998


Once he hydrates and carbs back up, he puts on 30 lbs back on in the 24 hours and fills out a lot. He officially weighs in around 215 lbs fight night.

View attachment 1094999

How could a guy with that much muscle, that still makes 185, have a big bone structure for 185? I'm not saying he's not big and doesn't cut a lot to make 185, I'm saying he needs to actively pack on a lot of muscle to make those two things true.

I think Darren Till for example was all frame at 170, his frame was huge for the weight class, whereas Woodley had a smaller frame but a lot more muscle.

 

[188912345]

No, he wasn't. Usman is a welterweight. Usman is a much smaller than Khamzat. He himself said he weighed 190 lbs fight night. Usman is no more than 5'10" if you look at his pictures side by side with Khamzat.

Usman claims to have benched 360 lbs and squatted 500 lbs. That's pretty strong.
You could also see him showing a lot of strength by just standing up when Khamzat had him flattened out with hooks in, moments before the slam.

It's not as simple as heavier = stronger, more muscles = stronger.

Also, I find it very hard to believe Usman was 190 on fight night at MW, since he looked softer and bigger there than at WW.

He was easily 190ish on fight night at WW, how could he then be 190 at MW, without being as lean?

 

[MMAFanCal]

How could a guy with that much muscle, that still makes 185, have a big bone structure for 185? I'm not saying he's not big and doesn't cut a lot to make 185, I'm saying he needs to actively pack on a lot of muscle to make those two things true.

I think Darren Till for example was all frame at 170, his frame was huge for the weight class, whereas Woodley had a smaller frame but a lot more muscle.

Like I said, he cuts 30 lbs to make middleweight. That is a lot of weight to lose in 1 week and then regain back in 24 hours through carbing up and rehydration. It is a combination of both big bone structure and lean muscle mass that dehydrates and rehydrates quickly. Paulo Costa does exactly the same thing. Both have similar frame and physiques.

 

[arcadeperfect]

Dricus should have the advantage in strength. Khamzat has the advantage when it comes to grappling technique.