Joe Rogan doesn’t like the chances that Doricus du Plessis will have if he gets a rematch with Kamza Chimaev.
Du Plessis suffered a disappointing loss to Chimaev at UFC 319 this August, dominating Du Plessis in five rounds of wrestling on the way to rob Du Plessis’ middleweight championship. It was not surprising that the undefeated Chimaev defeated Duplesis, but the biased way Chimaev won certainly frowned and criticised his harsh tactics.
Following the loss, Duplesis vowed to “return to glory” in the future, but Logan believes the South African star will have to wait until Chimaev comes out of the picture if he wants to become a champion again.
“It’s nuts because a lot of people thought it was boring. Joe Rogan’s experience. “It’s kind of crazy. Before the fight, Doricus was considered one of the greatest middleweights of all time. Look at what he did to all these guys. He knocks out Robert Whitaker.
“And after that fight, you don’t think he’s going to take that guy down. I don’t think he’ll have enough time to fill that gap. It’s just nuts.”
The gap that Logan mentions is a wrestling advantage that Chimeh has. Chimaev’s 15-0 record includes numerous quick finishes, but his five-round victory over Duplesis made it clear in Logan’s eyes that there is no solution to this problem for Duplesis.
Logan and guest Mark Kerr discussed how Russian wrestling styles are being utilized by other dominant champions such as Chimev (who grew up in the Chechen Republic) and Islamic Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“Also, as you’re implementing the first attack, you’ve already got three attacks on standby so he expects a counter, predicts a counter, and has a counter to his readjustment after the counter.
Wrestling is the best base for MMA, and it has long been said to be one saying that even if the sport has evolved dramatically since the turn of the century, it is one of the sayings Logan still supports.
“If you want to be a specialist, being a wrestling specialist is much more when you see what Khamzat did to Doricus,” Logan said. “The perfect example. Everyone had control over the world champion MMA fighters, and Camsatt only increased it and kept it.”