rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
UFC veteran Gilbert Burns has given his thoughts on the upcoming fight between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev.
As we know, Khamzat Chimaev is just one win away from achieving his goal of becoming UFC champion. In order to do that, though, he first needs to get through UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis. Given what we’ve seen from DDP during his UFC run thus far, it’s fair to say that this is a pretty tough fight for Khamzat.
RELATED: Khamzat Chimaev sends message to those who think he’s hype ahead of UFC 319 title fight
Of course, ‘Borz’ will be coming into this one as confident as ever, especially after his dominant win over Robert Whittaker. At this point, it’s a case of seeing whether or not he can use his usual pressure to overwhelm du Plessis and walk away with the title wrapped around his waist.
Gilbert Burns, who gave Chimaev a lot of problems in their fight a few years back, had the following to say on this contest recently.
Burns’ view on du Plessis vs Chimaev
“I do believe he might take Dricus down, might control him a little bit,” Burns said of Chimaev on the Show Me The Money Podcast.
“I don’t believe Dricus will get knocked out. I don’t think he’s going to get cut. I don’t think he’s going to get finished.
“I do believe Dricus is going to fight through all that, get up.
“I think if he’s slowing down the way [he did] against Kamaru [Usman] against me, against a couple other fighters that the fight went late. I think it’s a nightmare to fight Dricus…”
“The guy comes as a freaking truck,” Burns said of Chimaev rushing his opponents with his wrestling.
“The only way to stop the truck is to have a car crash with the car. If you do have a car crash, Dricus, he gotta like fight the adversity but with the same energy. He’s got to give a lot of energy back. Saying that, both guys are going to get exhausted in the second round.
“But I do believe Dricus with all experience, a lot of five rounds fighting, I think he’s going to be able to recover, dig deep and he hit so hard.
“Maybe a decision,” Burns said of how du Plessis beats Chimaev.
“But I do believe a late finish. Not even that late. I think third to fourth round. That’s my prediction.”
Quotes via Bloody Elbow
![“I’m 100% behind Puna [Soriano]” at UFC 320, per Dustin Stoltzfus](https://i2.wp.com/www.bjpenn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Punahele-Soriano.jpg?w=350&resize=350,250&ssl=1 "“I’m 100% behind Puna [Soriano]” at UFC 320, per Dustin Stoltzfus")
