Dricus du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev: Prediction on who to win title fight at UFC 319
Dricus du Plessis will take on Khamzat Chimaev to retain his UFC middleweight title at UFC 319 at the United Centre in Chicago, United States, in the early hours of Sunday, August 17, 2025.
The South African fighter is not rated as a favourite by many pundits, and the reason Chimaev was tipped to win the tie was explained earlier by an MMA expert.
A Combat Sports analyst has predicted who he expects to win the title bout in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Predictions: Who will win the bout between DDP and Chimaev
MMA analyst Afolabi Ojabowale has shared his thoughts on the highly anticipated bout between DDP and Chimaev in the United States of America.
He explained the different styles of approach and the skills each fighter possesses, and how they can each earn victory in the bout.
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"Du Plessis is 9-0 in the UFC, and has more wins than Khamzat in a shorter amount of time, and has become champion while also defending his belt against Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland," he said.
"The problem with DDP is that, for Khamzat, he's specialised as a grappler; he strikes too, but we all know his strength is grappling. DDP is everywhere, on paper, his style of fighting should not win fights, but for some reason, he gets it done.
"Normally, when you throw some kind of strikes, you are not supposed to follow it with a take down, but DDP does it and ends up getting it, and you can't write him off even though he's the underdog.
"One of the things that would determine the outcome of the fight is how DDP would defend against Chimaev's first take down because Khamzat always takes his opponent down within one minute or less, so he's going to shoot for a take down."
Ojabowale went on to drop his prediction on who he thinks will win the bout between the South African fighter and the Russian.
"If DDP can defend against Khamzat's first take down well, then the Russian knows he's down for a long time," he added.
"The question is, would DDP be able to hang with Chimaev on the ground.
"My prediction is that I would still like to have an African as the champion, but I think I would go for Chimaev to win by a second-round submission."
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Source: Briefly News
