{"id":19693,"date":"2026-03-04T13:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/2026\/03\/04\/du-plessis-is-confident-he-can-make-chimaev-quit\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:06:00","slug":"du-plessis-is-confident-he-can-make-chimaev-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/2026\/03\/04\/du-plessis-is-confident-he-can-make-chimaev-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"Du Plessis is confident he can make Chimaev quit."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis hasn’t said much since losing to Khamzat Chimaev in nearly five rounds last August, with all three judges scoring the fight 50-44. Now, as \u201cStillknocks\u201d prepares for his comeback, he\u2019s back out there sharing his thoughts on his last loss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt was definitely horrible and I absolutely hated it,\u201d Du Plessis told The Ariel Helwani Show. "But it’s in the past now. It’s what I’m going to do. It’s what the future holds. I can’t wait. It definitely stung me. It hurt for quite a while. If I hadn’t felt that way, I wouldn’t have been a world champion. And that’s why I’m a world champion again, because I hate losing.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The du Plessis vs. Chimaev fight was a bit unusual as Khamzat never bothered to advance or attack positions for submissions. He caught DDP in a position on the mat from which the South African could not escape, then threw enough punches to prevent the fight from getting back up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe wasn\u2019t as tough as I expected,\u201d du Plessis said. "You could see at the end of that fight when we got to the final round. I honestly thought ‘I’m winning this fight’ until the 10-second clapper rang and I knew it was all over. But when I got to the final round, I was 100% sure I was going to stop this guy. I was going to knock him out. And when I got the takedown, I got on top and got into the choke and started landing. I was… but it was too little, too late.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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"I could feel that he didn’t want to be there anymore. I could feel it, 100%. Just the way he looked and the way he felt. When I got on top of him, I could feel him saying, ‘Ah, uh-uh’… I know I can make that guy stop.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It takes a certain person with a certain mindset to get into MMA, and it takes a certain mindset to overcome a humbling defeat. We won’t judge du Plessis too harshly for what others find unrealistic. What does it take to get back into the championship spirit?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPeople ask why am I silent? Why am I not out there?\u201d du Plessis spoke about the suspension of online promotions. "Because I’m not an influencer. First of all. And secondly, what can I say? I have nothing to say. What happened. There were no excuses. I wasn’t injured. Nothing happened that night. I felt good. I felt good. I woke up. Great, had a great camp. I just lost. The next fight, that’s what I’ll be talking about.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Du Plessis revealed his return in April had been hampered by injury and he was hoping to be available next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe will know by Monday whether May is possible,\u201d he said. "I was hoping to get back in by April. The injury helped a little bit. I was able to continue training, but I couldn’t camp. I couldn’t do that and I couldn’t start combat preparation. So we’ll find out on Monday if I can start combat camp in May, maybe June, July.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt has to make sense,\u201d he added. "It’s really strange because there aren’t any long win streaks in the middleweight division right now. There aren’t any big win streaks. Almost every guy that’s been on these big streaks has lost. It’ll be interesting to see who they give me.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey told me they got an offer from Kamaru Usman. I never got an offer like that. I never got an offer. If they offered me, I would take that fight. I\u2019d love any fight if they offered me. Right now, anything to get that title shot back. That\u2019s what I need. I\u2019d love any fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis hasn’t said much since losing to Khamzat Chimaev in nearly five rounds last August, with all three judges scoring the fight 50-44. Now, as \u201cStillknocks\u201d prepares for his comeback, he\u2019s back out there sharing his thoughts on his last loss. \u201cIt was definitely horrible and I absolutely hated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[47443],"tags":[47438],"class_list":["post-19693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ufc-news","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}