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Stream UFC 319 on ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ufc/ppv
Brendan Fitzgerald, Dustin Poirier, Michael Chiesa, Brett Okamoto, Chael Sonnen and Anthony Smith break down Saturday’s main event featuring Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev with the middleweight title up for grabs.
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Video Transcript
Alongside the recently retired future
Hall of Famer Dustin Porier and Michael
Kasi, I'm Brennan Fitzgerald. We will
check in with Brett Okamoto, Chel Sunen,
and Anthony Lionheart Smith. They're at
the nearby Radius Theater where the
ceremonial weigh-ins will go down a bit
later today. Opening thoughts first on
being in Chicago. A great place to have
a UFC weekend. Dustin, good to be here.
It's hotter than I thought it was going
to be, especially when you stand on the
roof, but it's cool, man. The the game's
about to start, so crowd starting to
pack. It's it's good vibes.
Yeah. Last time I was here was when
Henry Cejudo captured the double champ
status at UFC 238. So, it's good to be
back here in Chicago. And yes, Dustin,
it is hot. Thank god we had some time to
cool off and let the the sweat get out
of our shirts. It was a little it was a
little hot up there.
Not nearly as humid as New Orleans.
Well, that's what we do, I tell you.
Let's get to this main event between
Drizz Duplexy and Hamzachi. And DDP had
to prove people wrong every step of the
way. Once again, he's a big underdog in
this one. Your opening thoughts on the
main events. the champ coming in as as
an underdog is is crazy to me. But you
have to look at uh Chamay and what he's
done and ran through the people he has.
But we'll see, man. I I think the odds
are a little crazy.
Yeah, the odds are a little bit crazy
and obviously there's a lot of steam on
Hamza Chamay, the undefeated record in
just the the dominance that he has
displayed in his fights. And for Drius,
I think maybe he's the underdog because
at times maybe he doesn't look as
polished as Chamay does. But
nonetheless, if I could bet on these
fights, I'd be hammering that DDP money
line. I'm sure we'll get to that at some
point. He's the biggest underdog as a
defending middleweight champion in UFC
history. Let's include Brett Okamoto
with Chale and Anthony with a bit more
on DDP in the main event. Guys, we'll
send it over to you.
Yeah, thank you so much Brendan. I'm
going to keep that conversation going
guys. You see the betting odds there for
Draus Duplaci. Over the course of his
career, we have had this conversation
about him before. Are people overlooking
him? Are they overlooking him again
coming into this title defense?
Yes. Yeah. Yes, they are. And I got to
tell you, I'm one of those people. The
night that Shamay took out Robert
Whitaker, took him down one position on
the fence, breaks his jaw and taps him
out, all these different things, it was
three to one and one line even had it
four to one. And I'm just sharing Chamay
has done nothing different. There's no
reason for us to have pulled Chamay
down. However, that's not what happened.
We all started to realize we've been
underestimating DDP. And Anthony, I'm
guilty of it.
I'm I'm absolutely guilty of it. I think
that Kiasa did a good job of I don't
know, maybe fluffing that a little bit.
I think we all have have kind of stepped
on DDP for a long time because what he
does doesn't look maybe correct if if
you're training someone to to fight or
or potentially work their way to a world
title. You're not you don't want them to
fight the way that Duplexie fights. It
it just doesn't look right. Us as
analysts, we've had to change how we
maybe address his fights and and how we
address his style and and it's really
made us had to have to look differently
at at fighting because is it right? Does
it look correct? No, not at all. Is it
effective? And I think that's what
really matters here. And he's he's as
effective as anyone's ever been.
And because of that, because it's it
looks weird sometimes, trail, it is easy
to get sucked into that narrative. But
what have you seen this guy improve
upon? Because he has been doing this now
for a long time. You saw the graphic,
one of the longer active win streaks in
the UFC right now. He must be getting
better as well, right? What is he
getting better at? And in addition to
being weird.
To compliment an athlete and to say he's
a competitor is a hard thing verbally to
explain, but boy, you know it when you
see it. And when you see somebody like
Drius, I mean, don't forget he got in
this spot because one day he got pissed
off. He was upset that he was on a card
and it was the debut fight of Bo Nickel.
Drias's third fight, they had him on the
undercard and Bo Nickel was going to the
main card. And this is where Drius
started to speak up. He got angry about
it. Squeaky wheel got the grease. He
moves onto that main card. He goes right
into a co-main event with Robert
Whitaker, right into a world title fight
with Sean Strickland. And I'm just
sharing with you when you're telling
everybody how good you are, you had
better be. And that's the one thing
about Drake is he does rise to the
occasion. The fact that he's an
underdog. The way that his crazy mind
works is a good thing for him.
Well, and I I think the the next part of
that, it he's an incredible competitor,
but he's also incredibly conditioned.
And I think that early on in his career,
we actually used to criticize him a
little bit because he would slow down in
fights and and the tail end of these
three rounders wouldn't look that great.
He claimed he had a nose issue. We kind
of laughed at it like, "Ah, it's a great
excuse." Turns out he was right. He had
his nose fixed and we haven't had a we
haven't seen a problem since. I've been
in there with Sean Strickland in terms
of training and and the pace that he
fights at. Drius was with him the entire
time both of those fights. He never
slowed down. He never backed off the
gas. That's probably what's most
impressive for me.
Well, you can't you cannot debate on
what the guy has done. You know, third
longest active streak in the UFC and
third longest all time in the
middleweight division behind only Israel
Adisagna and Anderson Silva. So, this
guy is right there in terms of cementing
himself already with those names. And
we'll kick it back over to Fitz and the
guys to talk a little bit more about the
defending champion going in against
Hamza Shamaya.
Well, that's well said. Thank you very
much, Brett. And yeah, Drizz Dupy, he
has been doubted along the way, but he's
done nothing but win. He's riding an 11
fight win streak. And he's made it a
point to prove people wrong fight by
fight. He certainly has done that,
becoming a dominant UFC champ, but with
each passing performance continues to
get better and better. the doubt
surrounding his abilities as you can
hear from these guys. Oh, it's getting
slimmer and slimmer as we look at along
the way. He's claimed one former champ
after another. And if you remember back
in July of 2023 when he took on Robert
Whitaker, he was I think a plus 300
underdog in that fight. He was an
underdog against Israel Adosana. Now he
goes for his third title defense in his
fourth title fight this weekend. your
thoughts on Drius Duplex looking
unconventional but being so great at it.
When I think of of Drizzus' fighting
style, his attributes,
awkward isn't an attribute that most
fighters strive to to get up there on
the top of the list, but it works for
him. He's awkward. He's unorthodox. His
timing, his rhythm is is weird. And I
think that that gives guys problems in
there. He's not throwing normal
combinations, a jab, cross, hook after
the cross, a hook isn't coming. It's
it's he's falling over himself and
throwing things that guys aren't ready
for. You can't train for that style of
fight. So that awkwardness is an
attribute for guys like him. Well, and
the thing too when you when you talk
about his fights where maybe he's looked
sloppy isn't the word I want to say, but
that's the word I'm going to use where
he has looked sloppy a lot of times a
lesser fighter those mistakes will cost
him fights. So he is able to get through
those growing pains and and evolve as a
fighter. And if you look at his last
fight against Shawn Strickland, he
fought a flawless performance. Not once
did I see him get off balance. Not once
did I see his head get ahead of his
feet. The blitzes were on point. He
fought a very polished fight and he's
continuing to evolve. So those growing
pains he's able to fight his way through
and continue to win. It's all paid off
for him and it's going to pay off on
Saturday night. I think that anybody
that hammers that betting line for
Duplexi is going to be very happy
because that Shawn Strickland fight
tells me we're not going to see the same
mistakes that he makes in the past. If
you can go fight Shawn Strickland, fight
his hands, and beat him at his own game,
he's going to give Hamza all he can
handle.
It's quite a different matchup. But to
your point, I'll come back to you on the
X factor for Drius Duplexi to get it
done against a much different style and
a relentless pressure fighter like Hamza
Chimay. What's it going to take?
Well, for me, I think Drius, he can go
out there and fight fire with fire. It's
just going to be he's got to get out of
that first round that that early sprint
that Hamzach Chamay that overwhelms his
opponents with. If he can get past that,
I believe Drius is the type of fighter
where he wants to fight fire with fire.
He will wrestle Hamza Chamay at some
point. I wouldn't be surprised if he
starts to pursue takedowns. Just like I
said in the Shawn Strickland fight, he
fought Shawn Strickland at his own game,
fighting his hands, beating him with the
jab, beating Shawn and what Shawn beats
his opponents at. So for Drius, I think
he gets through that early sprint of
Hamza Chamay. I think that he is going
to fight fire with fire. Look to see him
use his wrestling not only to throw
Hamza off his game. But that's a good
segue to to set up his strikes, break
the guard of Hamzot with the wrestling,
and throw some shots upstairs. I'm with
you on that. I think if he fights fire
with fire, gets into those grappling
exchanges, it's going to come down to
can he stop the takedowns? And if he
does, the plan I think on their side
would be bring it into the third,
fourth, fifth round, those championship
rounds where he has plenty of experience
there and where we've seen Kamzad kind
of slow down in other fights. You know,
if Kamzad slowing down in the third
against Usman, who's a great wrestler,
but a lot smaller of a man compared to
DDP, if he can get it there and make
Kamzad really expend all that energy
trying to get him down, I think fourth
and fifth are going to be cruise control
for DDP.
And people don't realize how big Drius
is. Drius is the size of a light
heavyweight. He's a very, very big
physical fighter. So, I think that's
something people are kind of overlooking
headed into this fight.
And on the other side, Hamzachimay, he
flirted with being a welterweight for a
while. He settled in as a middleweight.
And he certainly provides a big
challenge. So much so that he's a heavy
betting favorite in this one. If you
remember, he made a splash immediately
upon entering the UFC. It was July of
2020 over on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
Took on John Phillips. He absolutely
dominated the fight. It went into the
second round, which is actually
surprising. Now that we've seen what
he's done to some other very
credentialed fighters, took him out in
round two with a dar choke. Then 10 days
later, Shimaya became the quickest
fighter in UFC modern era history to
earn multiple wins. He took out Reese
McKe. This one just in the first round.
McKe wouldn't even land a single strike
against Chimayv for the 3 minutes and 9
seconds it lasted. Then he made his US
uh USA debut later and man got even more
impressive against a tougher talent in
Gerald Mchard. It was a one hit quit
knockout inside of 20 seconds for Hamzad
Chimayv. So that's why the fight world
noticed him immediately and he's done
nothing but win since as he enters
undefeated in his first title fight. Ki,
the anticipation is high to see this guy
for all the marbles.
Well, as we've as we've seen the sport
evolve, you can't be good at just one
thing. Not only to have success in the
UFC, but to become a world champion for
Hamza. When you worry about that threat
of the wrestling and that's all you
focus on, that opens up Pandora's box in
terms of what other weapons he can use.
When you just worry about the wrestling,
you go back to the Gerro Meshar fight.
Why do you think he was able to knock
him out so fast? Because Gerro Mshar was
anticipating that shot. in all of his
fights except the Jerro Mirshar fight,
he's shooting a takedown within 15
seconds or less. So, if you're just
worried about Hamzot's wrestling and
Hamzot's aware of that, that's going to
open up a lot of other opportunities for
him him to use different weapons and
throw you off your game if you're just
anticipating that early wrestling and
that early sprint.
All right, the hot start was there. He
stayed undefeated. Is the lore still
there? The aura of Hamzachimaya this
many years into it.
I think it is. I mean, look what he just
went out there and did to Robert
Whitaker, you know, a former world
champion. The aura is there for me. It's
just uh DDP's been around for a while.
He's fought some really good guys. Had
some big buildups to fights. I'm not
sure if he's going to fall into the, you
know, the getting blinded by the lights
of what comes with fighting a guy like
Hamzad. I think he's going to go in
there level-headed and and have a good
performance.
Yeah. And for Hamza, I mean, if it if it
ain't broke, don't fix it. You know,
he's going to stick to plan A. And that
plan A, look, that could be all but it
could be all that and then something
could get the job done on Saturday. I
just don't believe that one takedown,
one one position is going to secure him
the the belt. I think it's going to take
more than that. I think Drix is going to
make him work for that. But he
definitely has that aura of greatness
about him. For him to be undefeated and
going through the level of competition
that he has while maintaining that O.
There's definitely an aura about this
guy. He's a very very special fighter.
What do you think about the training
camp as he's gotten prepared for this
one this week at this challenge and with
a title on the
Well, obviously the thing that stands
out to me most is him spending time with
with Sam Calvida down at the training
lab. A guy that is known for getting
fighters in peak shape. the workouts
I've heard that go down in that garage
are they have lore within itself. So I
think that that is what he needs going
into this fight. So if if he wasn't
really checking that box in terms of
preparation to get ready for the
conditioning that Drius brings into the
octagon, you know, I I would have I I
would I wouldn't be as torn on this
fight. I still lean Drius, but I think
that Hamza has done all the right things
in preparation to get ready for that gas
tank that Drius Duplesi brings to the
octagon.
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