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Coach Conversation | UFC 319: Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev
Xtreme Couture Leader Eric Nicksick Delivers His Insights On Saturday’s Middleweight Title Fight In Chicago
Championship fights are layered battles, with the competitors stepping into the Octagon operating at the highest level in their respective weight classes. Breaking down how these pivotal contests could possibly play out is a challenging venture, which is why UFC staff writer E. Spencer Kyte has taken to enlisting the help of some of the sharpest minds in the sport to help dissect these critical contests.
Heading into this weekend’s UFC 319 middleweight championship fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev, Kyte sat down with Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick, who guided Sean Stickland into battle with the South African middleweight champion on two occasions, to get his thoughts on what each man brings to the Octagon and how this fight may shake out on Saturday night at United Center.
Best Trait of Each Fighter
Kyte: Given that you’ve been in the opposite corner for two of Dricus’ last two fights, it only made sense to reach out to you for this one, so let’s dive right into it — what’s the best trait of each guy?
Nicksick: So for Dricus, it’s his pressure and his pace. We’ve all seen it, we’ve all said it — his striking looks awkward and funky — but what he does really well is stay busy, keep throwing things, and he’s able to do that for five rounds.
UFC 319 Countdown | Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev
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UFC 319 Countdown | Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev
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It doesn’t have to be clean or even that effective in terms of damage and landing — it’s just that he’s always putting something out there for you to deal with, mixing things up, and when you look at a fight like this against Chimaev, that ability to make him work, force him to be a little more defensive, and maintain that output into the third, fourth, fifth rounds could be a big positive for him.
Kyte: And what about the challenger?
Nicksick: For Chimaev it’s the wrestling, but it’s how he wrestles, the way he gets after these guys that really stands out.
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Kyte: Right — he’s on you straight away, suffocating you, not giving you any chance to get settled or prepare for what’s coming.
Nicksick: A hundred percent.
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. His early pressure, and how Dricus deals with that early blitz will go a long way to showing us how this fight is going to play out.
Path to Victory
Kyte: All right, so let’s get into that side of things then. What’s the path to victory for the champ and what’s the path to victory for the challenger?
Nicksick: For Dricus, he has to get through the early rounds, has to find a way to drag Chimaev into the third, fourth, fifth rounds and look to get him tired, look to really capitalize in those later rounds.
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He’s not someone that is going to come out there and put you away early — he’s done it in the past, but he hasn’t really done it in the UFC. He builds into fights, and has shown in these last three that he’s definitely able to have success later into the fight. What’d he finish Izzy in, the fourth or the fifth?
Kyte: Later in the fourth.
Nicksick: Right, and he went five rounds with Sean both times. He needs to defend that early blitz, make Chimaev really work for everything, make him spend energy, and then try to really push the pace and get after him in the later rounds where we’ve seen him slow down in the past.
Kyte: Yeah, this feels like a classic “if it ends early, it’s one result, and if it ends late, it’s the other” kind of fight.
Nicksick: A hundred percent.
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Kyte: And for Chimaev it’s get out there, get after him, and get it over with in a hurry.
Nicksick: Yeah, 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.
Kyte: Right — shoot right away, get connected, and make him deal with everything you’re giving him, trying to get him out of there?
Nicksick: A hundred percent.
He took Whittaker down in 30 seconds, or was on his waist wrestling in 30 seconds, and Whittaker was never able to recover, couldn’t get free. He’s so strong, his control is so good, and once he’s connected to you, he’s working — moving you around, looking to get hooks in, get to your back, landing little shots, little knees to the thigh — and you’re just stuck there trying to deal with it as soon as the fight starts.
Kyte: If you’re Dricus or you’re in his corner, and you know this is coming, you know you’re going to have to deal with this, what do you tell him?
Nicksick: First is you have to try to be offensive, but not rush — you have to try to make Khamzat go backwards, but you can’t be wild because he’ll just shoot underneath.
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But in terms of dealing with getting taken down, him getting into the wrestling, you have to just be really tight with your defense, and be technical in how you deal with things.
Kyte: It feels like one of those spots — and I shout this at my TV all the time watching fights, as if I know what I’m talking about — where you can’t worry about offense at all; it has to just be stuff the head, keep a strong base if he’s in trying to take you down along the fence, and when he gets you down, keep the chin tucked, deal with the hooks, and just two-on-one, baseball bat, make sure you don’t get mauled.
Nicksick: Yep, and that’s easier said than done, right, but that’s what you have to do because his pressure is too good, his chain wrestling is too good.
Dricus Du Plessis | The Pride Of South Africa
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Dricus Du Plessis | The Pride Of South Africa
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Whittaker has great defensive wrestling and even in that one little moment in that fight where he got to his butt and started to get free, you saw how quickly Khamzat was right back on him, dragging him back to the canvas.
You almost have to accept that if he gets you down, that’s the round for him and your job is to survive and do better the next time.
Kyte: It’s true. It sucks, but it’s true.
X Factor
Kyte: Okay, so what’s the X-factor here? What’s the one thing that can have a big impact on how this fight plays out?
Nicksick: It’s gotta be how Dricus deals with that early rush and how Chimaev holds up if he can’t get him out of there in the early rounds.
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Kyte: And those two things go hand-in-hand.
Nicksick: A hundred percent because we don’t get one if the other doesn’t happen, right? Like Dricus has to survive the early storm and make Khamzat work past Round 2 in order to force him into deep waters where his volume and pressure can take over.
Khamzat Chimaev Sit-Down Interview | UFC 319
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Khamzat Chimaev Sit-Down Interview | UFC 319
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If he can do that, then we get see how Chimaev looks against an elite fighter, someone that has shown he can have success in those later rounds in those spots where we’ve seen him slow down before.
Kyte: Who dictates that more to you? Here’s what I mean: those two things are connected — the early blitz from Khamzat, the need for Dricus to survive and take him into deep waters — but does one guy have a greater say, I guess, in determining whether or not that happens?
Nicksick: I don’t know if one guy has a greater say, but the offensive guy always has the edge, right?
Dricus can defend and make the right decisions and concede positions, but that all works in Khamzat’s favor, and if he can suffocate him early — chain wrestle, control him, keep him from getting into any kind of rhythm at all in those first couple rounds — it makes it more difficult for Dricus to just come out in the third or fourth if it gets there and just get rolling.
It’s hard to be down 2-0, have a guy all over you, and then come out and just take it to him. Not that he can’t do it, but it’s difficult, especially when it’s a guy like Khamzat that you’re dealing with on the ground, you know?
Kyte: Yeah, that makes sense.
One Coaching Curiosity
Kyte: So then what’s your point of curiosity here? What’s something about this matchup, this fight, how it plays out that you’re thinking about, that you want to see that falls outside of the standard stuff we usually talk about?
Nicksick: So Khamzat has been working with Coach Cal at The Treigning Lab in Orange County…
Kyte: The place (TJ) Dillashaw and those guys did all their cardio and conditioning and stuff? It’s Sam Calavitta, right?
Nicksick: Yep. He’s been out there with (Aaron) Pico and them, and I’m told he’s made significant cardio strides working with Coach Cal, focusing on extended high-intensity intervals, oxygen efficiency drills, and sport-specific endurance circuits.
Full Fight | Dricus Du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya
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Full Fight | Dricus Du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya
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Kyte: Yeah, Coach Cal is a mad scientist with this stuff and pushes to get everything dialed all the way in.
Nicksick: For sure, and so that kind of stuff could allow Khamzat to maintain a more aggressive pace in the later rounds. I’m not saying it will for sure, but if the improvements hold up and he’s able to keep wrestling for 15 or 25 minutes, that’s a big factor and a big change from how we all kind of see things maybe playing out.
Order UFC 319: Du Plessis vs Chimaev
Kyte: Okay. I had no idea he was out there; that’s really big. Like you said, it doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s definitely something that is good to know, that you have to think about going into this now.
Nicksick: A hundred percent.
UFC 319: Du Plessis vs Chimaev took place live from United Center in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!