Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick has given his thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev's best path to victory as he prepares to challenge for the UFC middleweight championship.
On Saturday night, Khamzat Chimaev finally gets his crack at UFC gold. He'll be going up against reigning champion Dricus du Plessis in a fight that, to put it bluntly, is going to be pretty awesome. There are so many different ways in which it can go, and for Khamzat, you'd have to imagine that his wrestling will be his best bet.
As it turns out, Eric Nicksick
Eric Nicksick on Khamzat Chimaev’s route to victory
“For Chimaev it's the wrestling, but it's how he wrestles, the way he gets after these guys that really stands out. He's on you straight away, suffocating you, not giving you any chance to get settled or prepare for what's coming. He chains everything together so well, so quickly that it's hard to react and respond.
“He likes to just blitz right away — get across the cage, get connected to you — and then he's immediately looking to get you down, switching his entries, constantly making you defend. Once he gets you down, he's flattening you out, looking for ground-and-pound or a choke. We've seen it in almost all of his fights — guys are just stuck on the back foot, stuck defending — and Chimaev is too strong, too good for them to be able to stop him.”
“For Chimaev it's get out there, get after him, and get it over with in a hurry. He's not looking to show he can go five rounds or spend any more time in there than he has to. It needs to look like the fight with Whittaker. Shoot right away, get connected, and make him deal with everything you're giving him, trying to get him out of there.”
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