MMA Fighting - UFC 319 Timeline: Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Before Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev battle in a UFC middleweight championship bout at UFC 319, check out the roads each fighter took to Saturday's main event matchup. Follow Mike Heck: ���⁠⁠@mikeheck_jr⁠⁠⁠ Follow E. Casey Leydon: ⁠⁠⁠@ekc⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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MMA fighting presents timeline. Drikas 2 Plus C versus Hamzat Shemayev. July 15th, 2020. UFC fight night, Cater versus Ige, Abu Dhabi. In a rare occurrence, highly touted prospect, the 6-0 Hamzat Shemayev makes his UFC debut 10 days before his scheduled welterweight debut. Welsh middleweight John Phillips was originally

scheduled to face Disco Tadorovich. But one week before the fight, Tadorevich was forced to withdraw. Due to very limited options because of international travel restrictions at the time, the UFC allows Shemayev to fill in for Tadorevich. Shemayev dominates and finishes Phillips by Darshchoke late into round two. Performances the night, Lerone Murphy, he looked phenomenal tonight. What a huge win for him over Amos.

and then Kamsat Kameev? Holy cow, what a performance from him. I train with the guys, the top guys, are Alexander Gustafen and Il-Latif Rizama that the old guys, there was the top fighters in the U.C. I do sparring every day with them. I know what I can do. They know they teach me, but now I'm waiting for something good.

I can do, gonna fight with everybody, Kamaru Usman and the Wadu Pitchel, what his name for this guy, gangster? I don't remember. When were the Hans Ruggitz Muthan? Kamar Osman, Oudra, I forgot, I forget his name. Sorry, my English not so good, big drama show. I started to learn my English also one year before. or I don't have teachers, but I look at the EU's interviews and my bed and I learn me like this.

Looks good. Thanks. July 25th, 2020, UFC fight night, Whitaker versus Till, Abu Dhabi. Just 10 days after his UFC debut, Shemaiah returns to the cage for his originally scheduled opponent and date. time, the fight takes place at Welterweight. And Hamzat Shemayev coming back 10 days after that John Phillips fight to face Reese McKee down away class at 170. He's such an animal.

I'm glad you brought up Reese too because Reese is an absolute animal too. I think he's on like a three-fight win streak down in Cage Warriors, like all stoppage wins and Pizza Carol has interviewed him on Eurobash a few times, I think so. It's one of those fights. I love this fight as like a martial arts competition. I wish they weren't fighting each other. Because these are two, like, the definition of, like, blue chip prospects. Like, Kazmashamayov and Reese McKee are going to, like, I don't want to say the future contenders yet,

but these are two names that people have had circled for a long time as future, like, top 15 welterweight. So I wish they weren't fighting each other so early in their careers because I feel like this would be, like, for all we know, whoever loses this fight, like down the road, that rematch, like, it wouldn't surprise me if it's a co-main or main event for a big fight night, once this pandemic ends down in Europe. Yeah, Reese McKee, we're waiting for this, for this debut to have it for a while now, and then he gets Shamaia. And he got a rough fight for his first, first fight.

Hamzad Shemayev moves to 2 and O in the UFC with the dominant first round TKO over Irishman, Reese McKee. Shemayev also picks up his second performance bonus in 10 days. Yeah, I like to fight the KHA. and smash somebody, it's too easy. It's too easy. I do.

Smash somebody to get money, but it's perfect for me. I don't think somebody's going to be on a problem. I'm going to beat everybody. Like I did today, I promise you guys. We got to talk about Shamiyaf. Good God Almighty. True or false? And this is an open question for everybody.

Is Hamzat Jamiyev, the MVP of Fight Island? he's the breakout star for sure he like yeah if there was one guy that like how many fights were on five island like 6,000 if there's one one fighter i'm gonna remember who i didn't know anything about coming into fight island is that guy like i kept i kept asking esther okay how do you say his name again because i'm going to say his name a lot i feel like pretty soon no i think he got zero zero strikes absorbed i think john philip glanced i think oh really that's it was like i think the The final numbers on the Phillips fight was like 119 to 4. The fact that he just destroyed these guys, like it was like their first day on a mat.

And I think that's why we're so excited about him. And of course, you know, he talks, he talks, he has that little broken English that kind of is fun to listen to. It's fun and violent. It's cute. He's a terrified man. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for to. September 19th, 2020, UFC Fight Night, Covington versus Woodley, Las Vegas, Nevada. The 8-0 Hamzat Shemayev makes his U.S. debut against hard-nosed veteran, the 31 and 13, Gerald Mearschart, at the UFC Apex.

He tried to, like, I think he was trying to talk trash to me. I think he just kept saying, like, don't talk too much. And I was kind of like, yeah, okay, like, we're fighting Saturday. So we're not going to do anything now because I want to make money. I don't know what his deal is. And not only that, but I don't think it's like. a very cool thing to flex when you got a bunch of your friends with you and stuff. Like I had one guy with me, I had a bunch of guys with him, but it's like, dude, like I get it.

You don't have to like me, I don't have to like you, but let's just save it for the cage. Yeah, he was here. I meet him. He was like, he said, I said he was, he was, he spoke too much, you talk too much in my media, like me, he he disrespected me, they did like these, these things. I didn't like that, but I said to him, you like him, you like him. to talk too much he said yeah i say i'm gonna smash your face chicken i think anyone who has heard me talk about i'm i'm torn on i think i love him as a prospect i hate him as a as people

touting him as this like already unbeatable fighter i hate when anyone and not him in particular i hate when anyone this early uh gets that kind of build up uh so i he's something i want someone i want to see fight like i said we're glad we're seeing him his uh his first fight in it's only been two months uh since his last fight so third fight in whatever uh 70 something days And I know we're all excited and intrigued, but again, I want people to not be, you know, disappointed if Mirashirt gets a win here. I'm not saying Mirshart's going to win, but there's a lot of people out there. I've seen him in the comments, seen him on social media. I think that Hamzaat Shamiya was just going to run through Gerald Mirashart like butter.

I think this fight's going to be a lot closer than you think. I wouldn't be shocked if it goes the distance. I'm going to throw that out there, but this is a fight with two guys that finish more time, more often than not. It's interesting. I don't even have a pick here. I can't pick one because I think it's so evenly match and I'm surprised that Gerald Mearshard, even so the lines are starting to even out a little bit. But Mearshaar's as a three to one dog is super surprising. I'll go. I think it will go to the distance and I'm leaning towards Shemai of. And a performance that will both make him look good as far as, again, people get to see that world-class wrestling. And I think how people understand why we may want to tempt our expectations here because, again, I think Mercer is going to show a lot of stuff in the ground.

He's going to really challenge him down there. And that's good. I think for a guy like Shamiya, that's what he needs in his career. So I want people, I think, again, people viewing this as sort of a showcase step-up fight, I don't think they're going to get exactly what they're looking for. Shemayev knocks out Mirshart with one single strike and an astonishing 17 seconds into round one. Do you feel like you deserve to be in that discussion already for a title shot? Of course, why not? I did hard work for that. I'm ready. You prefer one division over the other or just whichever?

both division. I got to admit, I didn't see that coming. I thought Mirashar would test him. I thought Shemai would win the fight, but I thought Shemaya would have to work a little bit more. Man didn't have to work at all. Now we're talking about booking him on Fight Island and maybe in the next seven to 14 days.

Jed, wax poetic on Mr. Shabaiov after that performance tonight. Dude, there's not a person alive who saw that coming. I don't even think Homsa saw that as the one-hitter-quitter. The first punch he threw. He threw one kick and then he threw a puncher. punch and he felled him like a tree. I mean, there's nothing in any of his history to have shown us that, yeah, we're, we're going to be done with this.

I thought Miershot was going to get worked over. I've been saying this for weeks. I told you guys at some point, like, sure, it is technically true that Joe Mershart is the toughest fight of Hamzat's career, but Miershot's just going to try and play Jujitsu and he's just going to get punched in the face a lot until he stops fighting back. I was totally wrong. He got punched in the face one time. It wasn't a lot.

It was just one time. And this dude's a natural welterweight. He came up and a durable, tough guy, the news is Cheryl Nearshart and just burnt him out. Like unbelievable performance. October 10th, 2020. UFC Fight Island 5, Marais versus Sanhagen, Abu Dhabi. The 14 and 2, Drickus Duplice,

makes his UFC debut against Mark Pazz. DuPlessi begins his UFC career with the first round knockout by Left Hook. If you, like I said, I said it before, if you don't have a mission to be the greatest of all time, you're, you shouldn't be here, you're going to get hurt. I want to be the greatest to ever do the sport. And I mean, who's at the top of the file? Whoever has that about it's nothing personal against how to sign. I'm not calling him out per se. I'm calling out the guy who has the belt. And the whole division has to know that I'm coming. The whole division has to see what just happened.

Everybody said, this guy's never been finished. 15 outings never been finished. I have 14 wins. I finished every single one of them. And I said, this is how I proved my point. I get into the UFC on the main guard, fighter guy that's never been finished, finish him in the first round.

And I mean, I feel I made a statement with that. And right now I'm chasing that top 20 and whoever the UFC gives me next, I'll go through them. And I'll go through wherever I need you to get that belt as soon as possible. July 10th, 2021, UFC 264, Porier v. McGregor 3, Las Vegas, Nevada. Duplice returns to the cage opposite Trevin Giles.

The way I fight is spectacular, the way I'm lucky like that. The way that I fight is a way of fighting, of forcing and of putting up a pace going forward. And even when I'm on our back to keep the fight going, 17 fights, two losses, all 15 moments coming by a finish. And I don't see that changing this weekend. And I don't see that changing any time soon. If it should, if it will, it's not a problem for me. But, you know, that debut was pretty perfect. And don't be surprised if you see something more spectacular Saturday

and you see the exact same result. I'm going out there and doing what I do. And if that spectacular finish comes, it will. But at the end of the day, you could be the nicest guy in the world. you could be the biggest asshole in the world. To me, I get in there, I see a blank face, I see somebody in between me and that title, in between me, he's one ladder,

he's one step in the ladder that I have to take. So, I mean, to me, the persona doesn't matter. To me, the personality doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is getting that win. And, yeah, like I said, it's not something that bothers me. Even if you are trying to get under my skin, it's not going to bother me. The end of day, I'm going to do the same kind of thing to the nicest guy that I'm going to do to the worst guy.

So it's a tomatoes potato for me. DDP gets a second consecutive finish in the UFC and knocks out Giles in round two. Duplac C would also earn his first official performance bonus with the stoppage. Obviously, very, very happy to be on a prelim on for the Connepoyer trilogy, but I'm not a prelim fighter. I haven't been for very long. I defended belts for five years, fought for belts only had three world titles outside of the UFC. And hopefully now the lesson is learned.

I am a main guard fighter and I want to be on a main card. I always say every culture, almost, fighting is in our DNA. Fighting is the most primitive sport in the world. We all have it in us. And we'll have a different way of doing it. The way we do it in Africa is completely different to the way in the States. The way they do it in Russia,

if you see the Russian dudes fight, the Russian dudes fight, it's completely different to how Americans fight. Everybody has the unique style and I believe me training in Africa, fighting in that style, I bring something to this gauge that nobody's ever seen. I bring something that is on the orthodox style, a type of power and a type of tenacity that doesn't come from, yes, so technically we are not, we don't have the sport for that long or we don't have first division wrestlers, but we have that African style and we have that African heart. And that's something that I think nothing can buy in our country.

And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not planning on leaving it full time anytime soon. I'm not planning on leaving my family, friends and my team over there. I think if I'm going to become the UFC champion and I will become the UFC champion, is going to be out of Africa. Duplice would follow up that victory with a unanimous decision over UFC veteran Brad Tavares at UFC 276, Adasanya versus Canoneer the following July. I want to find my feet in the octagon because my first fight was, what, two and a half minutes, then one round and two minutes.

Now I had my octagon time, and now I assume a lot of people thought off that first or second round, this guy's going to gas. I didn't guess. I could do that. That's the way I trained and that's the way I fought. And it's found incredible to be in there. and like you said, this is going to be one of those memorable fights, that this is when I stepped into the top 15,

and I'm not leaving the top 15. I'm only going up from here, and this fight has to be a test of me. This fight has to put the rest of this division on note. If I don't knock you out, if I don't submit you, at the end in the deep waters, I will still be there, throwing with everything I have. October 30th, 2021, UFC 267,

Blajowicz versus Tashara, Abu Dhabi. After fighting three times in two months, Hamza Tchamayev makes his return to the cage over a year after his last fight. He is set to face his toughest competition yet, Walterway contender, Lee Jing Liang. And then at Media Day, you said that your plan was to eat your opponent up and take his head.

He's still. He's still now. He seems very excited. He said it's the leech versus the wolf. Let's See Who E. Too. What is your response to that? I got an 18. I mean, it is the Shamiya's show.

Stories about him. Big favorite. Mine is 600 favorite, which seems insanely wide amaz. But like you said, Jingleong eating this all up. He is basking in the spotlight of this card and this fight. And I feel like the weight issues with Shamiya,

along with the horrible effects from COVID he had, everything he's dealt with. That's not being talked about enough here. I thought Jingleong had some great upside without the way in drama. But did the way in drama this morning, did that change the way you view this fight at all? I'm still picking Hamzat. I think Hamzat is just on another level. I think he's so much better than his wreck.

Like he's 9 and 0, but he's so good. It's like, you know, like Islam, I don't know if he was considered like a future champ when he was like three fights in the UFC, but he just had this like one, when Habee was three and up where he just had this like Corey Sandhagan was the same thing. We were like, it's just a matter of time. I know for a fact that Sean Schell, we wanted Hamza to get a few more wins on the regional scene before he came over into the UFC

because even the UFC was like, this guy's unbelievable, but we want him to be a big deal when he gets it. But then they ran out of people on Fight Island to fight on Sharnotice, so they brought him in really early. And they're doing exactly what he thought. He's just tearing through, like, on-ranged fighters.

So I would have loved to see the Leon fight because I think I still would have picked Liam. I still would have picked Leon, but I think I don't think, I think Hamzaat would have really been in there in five rounds, so I'm very excited to see Hamzaat fight again. I just think he's a future title challenger. I love the Leach.

I think he's one of the more underrated fighters in the game. His string of wins, especially his win over San Diego Ponzi. It's not talked about enough for upset of the year. I'm looking forward to it. I love everything about this fight. I do think Hamzot is unbelievable at fistfighting. In classic Shamiya fashion, he completely ragdals Lee and finishes him midway into round one. Shemayev also takes home his fourth straight performance bonus.

But how about Hamsat Shemayev? How about Hamzat Shemayev? I'll come on these shows once in a while and I'll make these picks and I'll put a foot in my mouth. I put like two feet and two elbows in my mouth thinking that Li Jing Liang was going to go in there. He's going to weather. that storm and he was going to finish Hamzaat Shamaif in the third round. I was so confident that pick. Until I saw Hamza Shemayev, body lock Li Jing Liang carry him across the octagon while talking to Dana White at the same time. Just so confident, just slams him down,

doing whatever he wants. And at that point, I'm just like, wow, I don't think I've ever been more wrong in my entire career because this was not going to go much better for Li Jing Liang. There's no storm to be weathered after that. He completely took him out of that fight mentally. Nothing you could do once that happens to you. And Hamzaa just goes out there three minutes later and just puts Lee Jingleong to sleep. This dude is the real deal. People don't want to believe it at times, but this guy is the real deal.

And if you want to throw him into a title fight right now, go right ahead. I am not going to stop you at this point. This guy, I want to see him fight everybody. I want to see him fight everybody in the top 10 at 70. I want to see him fight everybody in the top 10 at 185, AK. I'm so excited to see this guy fight. I am more sold on him now than I ever have been, and it's not even close.

Listen, I tweeted this earlier. Usman, once you dispose of Covington, you should be trying to get Shemayev now. Because I think Shemayev is not as, you know, not at the, like, I think he's going to get even better. I think you get him now, and I think you have a very, I think Usman has a very good chance of beating him. A year from now, I don't know.

It could be a different story. And again, maybe any version of Usman beats Shemai. I don't know, but boy, this guy really captures your imagination with his performances and makes you feel like he could beat anybody. Save what people want to want to see him face a wrestler. I want to see him face a better grappler. The test he's faced so far, he has passed with the most flamboyance flying colors that you can possibly imagine. He looks like he's unstoppable.

Again, if he fights a great wrestler someday, maybe he won't be. I don't know. But right now the first four fights, how can you not be excited? How can you not think he's a world caliber welterweight? And again, if I'm Usman, I beat Cummington and I say, give me Shemayev now. Everyone's talking about Hamzaa Shemayev. Give me him now. Hamzaa will jump right on it.

And then boom, Usman takes out one of the hottest names in 170 and possibly nips that in the bud or Shemaiah becomes, I don't know, the next GSP or something. He's so talented. It's insane. April 9th, 2022. UFC 273 Volkanowski versus Korean zombie Jacksonville, Florida. The undefeated Hamzad Shemayev returns to the cage in a pivotal welterweight bout against top-ranked former title challenger Gilbert Burns.

Does his jiu-jitsu concern you at all? It seems like he may have the grappling. This is not jiu-jitsu. This is not wrestling. This is a MMA. This is fighting. He's not like, take the guy and hold somebody. I'm going to smash his face, but I'll fight everyone.

I come here to take my money and kill everyone. He's the most incredible prospect that I've ever seen in the UFC. And let's also not forget, prior to coming to the UFC, he beat two undefeated fighters back to back to earn his UFC contract. So sometimes a lot is made of his strength of schedule compared to Gilbert Burns. His Gilbert Burns make it his 18th UFC appearance. but Hamzaa Chimayev is more battle-tested than you would believe. And, you know, I kind of like to spin the conversation around.

It's like, what do you fight fans feel about Gerald Mershaw? What do you feel about the Leach, Li Jing, Liang? Because Li-Jing-Li-Jing-Lion went into the fight with every belief that he was going to beat Hamzaa Chimaiev, and he got, you know, chewed up and spit out in a couple minutes, you know? So I'm curious to see what Gilbert can do with this chance. But Hamzad is just incredible. And one thing that's interesting to me is that Chimayev has talked to us at length about wanting a war and wanting to be in one of those Hall of Fame-type fights that fans are talking about

for years to come. I'm not sure if this fight will be that. But if he is able to engage in that realm and gets a little bit too comfortable in a kickboxing match, you know, maybe Burns can take advantage. In a wildly competitive back-and-forth fight, Shamiov takes home his first decision victory of his career. The fight is awarded Fight of the Night Honors and was widely regarded as one of the best fights of 2022. I was too excited to knock him out. I was like, say to everybody all week and knock him out, I tried to knock him out. I tried to knock him out, you know.

That was wrong for me from the beginning. The guy was tough. I didn't accept that and all. I did like that. But from the first second to last second, I had to try to finish him, you know. Next time I'm going to work a little bit smarter. And yeah, got to smash that, buddy. I like that shit, you know.

I love my face, blood, and sweat and kick somebody, you know, punch somebody, make money. I get 50 Gs, I'm happy. Do you feel like you're becoming one of the, if not the biggest stars in MMA today? I don't know, brother. I don't care. I have my money. I'm going to eat some pizza and drink some coke, brother.

I'm going to go home. Who care about the funny, like, famous, the not famous, that shit. You have your money, brother. You have fun. Joy for life, brother. What's the toppings of choice? Toppings in the pizza? Yeah, I don't know.

Like some chicken and everything, smash everything. So these moments of adversity are become part of a champion's story. And one day, I never like to say when with these things, but strong if, one day, strong if Hamza Shemayv does become a UFC champion, we will look back on this Gilbert Burns fight as a positive, as a great part of, of his mythology, not as like, oh, he got away with one there. And I didn't think it was at that moment, you know, I started to have doubts. It's like, no, no, this happens. This happens to all great fighters.

And again, the fact that he, hey, listen, he is still undefeated. You know, we're talking about it. Like he was tested and like he lost. And no, man, the record is still is still unblemished. He's still clearly one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC. If there was any question of that, I mean, he's not just bulldozing through overmatch competition. He just put on one of the best fights of the year against me personally, my number two and my personal rankings, Gilbert Burns. Now he's going to take that spot. So yeah, definitely

slight bump upwards as far as my my expectations for him, which were already sky high. I think he's still going to win a UFC title. I was pretty convinced that he was going to win two UFC titles before tonight. I am a little less certain that he can go up and get the middleweight one. I think that's still in play. I'm not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater because of one tough fight. But I think we saw some limitations. And so now, whereas there weren't any before he was unbounded in my imagination, now there are some real things that he can fix and can work on. But he's also 27.

I know he's relatively young in fight years. But if he was 22 or 24, no questions at all. he's going to be a two division champion at 27 knowing that he has some clear limitations that he maybe didn't fight the and he acknowledges didn't fight the best fight for himself he got drawn into a battle that he shouldn't have been drawn into that raises questions especially when his road to a title will go through kamar usman one of the greatest fighters of all time and potential is dissonia also one of the greatest fighters of all time so i still think he's going to hold the belt at At some point, I'm just less confident he holds two, though I still think that's in play for him.

September 10th, 2022, UFC 279 Diaz versus Ferguson, Las Vegas, Nevada. Originally booked as the welterweight main event of UFC 279, Hamzaa Shemayev is booked to face Nate Diaz. However, Shemayev misses weight and Diaz refuses to accept a catchweight bout. Shemayev is rebooked to face Kevin Holland, who is already on the card at 180 pounds. 178 and a half, the official weight for Hamzat Shimeyev. We have a brand new main event for UFC 279 going down tomorrow. It is Nate Diaz versus Toti Ferguson. That is the main event.

That is now going down. Hamzat Shemayev missed weight by a lot this morning. shuffled up the deck. We have a brand new top three fights moving forward tomorrow. We have Nate Diaz versus Tony Ferguson, five-round main event. We got Kevin Holland versus Hamzat Samayev. And then we got Li Jing Liang taking on Daniel Rodriguez. And this is absolute insanity.

This whole day has been absolute insanity. I can't remember ever seeing a confluence of events like what we just saw over the last 24 hours that has completely taken UFC 279 apart and rearranged it in a way that is, by far like a much more interesting and compelling card the card that i think a lot of people came into this week we're calling for if we have these permutations of these fights why are we not doing them differently like what we ended up with the ufc sort of fell ass backwards into in my one of my eyes and i think a lot of people's eyes is the much more interesting the much more compelling the much better card overall and just the way that this has all played out the way that we've reached

to this point uh it's utterly poetic i know we're all happy about how this turned out, but that, we are looking at one of the all-time bag fumblings that this man just did. Like, this is crazy how badly Hamzat Shemayev botched this whole week, right? Because this was a guy who, again, we have talked about it for weeks at this point, months since this fight was booked. This was essentially a golden ticket to start up to a certain degree, right? Like Hamzat Shemayev has been obviously pinpointed by the UFC as the next guy, the next mainstream star, the next champion in this division. So what are you going to do? You throw them against the eight years. All of us within the space saw it for what,

what it was. All of us within like general MMA hardcore fans, etc., people who are watching the show right now, we understood what this was, but you look on the outside. You look at the casual fans, the people who know maybe three or four UFC fighters total. Nate Diaz is one of those guys, and it was very clear that this was the chance for Hamzat Shemayev

to become one of those guys by the end of Saturday night. And if not, at least be known as, to the casual fan as, oh, that's that really scary bearded dude who just ground Nate Diaz into a fine powder. Like, that was what this was going to be for him, and he was going to get the next title shot against the winner of the trilogy fight between Usman and Edwards. He was probably just going to be able to sit out and enjoy, you know, himself for a while

and then come in once whenever that was done and just get the next one. And it was destined for him. Like, this is the path that had been laid out in front of him. And he totally just blew it all within a span of like 24 hours. Like it is crazy to the degree to which he bungled this. And now we're left in a point where he was just getting booed. Like he was just getting massive, massive booze. Like nuclear heat in that arena in Las Vegas.

I think he did not endear himself to a lot of the MMA community in terms of the fan base with the way he handled the way and miss, but also just like the how unapologetic he was about it, where he's just like posting memes. And he's just kind of like flipping off the cameras and giggling and stuff like, you miss weight by seven and a half pounds for a main event that you're about to make millions of dollars for. Like that's a very, very bizarre reaction to have in my eyes. I think a lot of people see that and that doesn't sit well with them. Obviously, this is all short term, right? Like, he, the MMA fan base has a very short-term memory where if Hamzat comes out there, demolishes Kevin Holland within a round, and then just cuts a, you know, a great promo. I'm sure he'll be back in the good graces of people pretty quickly.

Shemayev quickly submits Holland by Darshchoke, a little over two minutes into the first round. Did it bother you? When you debuted on the UFC and Fight Island, everybody was happy to see you. excited. They talked about you. You heard the reaction tonight. The fans were not happy with you. How did that make you feel? Were you angry at that? Were you sad or did you not care? You care about that shit? I don't care. I care about my family. I care about my career. I care about my money. So what now? The people don't leave me. You know, one day they're with me. One day we're not with me. So I'm real guys. So I love the people who is real, you know, not the fake people.

but going one way or another way, so yeah. Did you expect this if Humzaa was gonna win? You're just gonna do that. Kevin wouldn't land a single strike. This would be non-competitive. I will preface everything by just coming out and saying, hand up, I was wrong. Hey, I think I was doing a little bit of wish casting in there,

but super wrong. Couldn't have been more incorrect on my fight prediction. It is not surprising to me that he did this. It is not what I thought would happen because I thought he was going to let his ego control him a little bit more, try and just suck it out with Kevin for a little bit. Thought Kevin could maybe put up a little bit more of a defense on the ground. But none of that was the case. Apparently, you have to ride the fine line Gilbert Burns did of dragging him into a brawl by making it

fun because if you piss this dude off he is going to go about the most hyper-efficient way of beating the shit out of you as possible um there ain't nothing else that he's the best well-to-ight the planet and that's that's i know that a lot of people are going to hate that i'm sure many people in the comments are going to be flaming the hell out of me for it most of the people on your staff are going to be mad because he was the best 180 pound on the planet uh sure all those things that's fine, but that we know that dude can make weight. He didn't make it this time. I was very clear.

I thought that he just wasn't giving a shit. And I still think that he came into this fight week, not being focused or prepared or anything because he thought he could walk through Nate. And yeah, apparently he damn sure could have. But push comes to shove. Firmly believe he can make 170. And I don't see a human being alive who can make 170.

pounds and is it going to fall under the windstorm that is him like he's we've never seen him we have never seen him in an m-m-a and that's just the facts you guys can hate him and a lot of people will and that's totally okay i'm not even saying that i like him as a person or what he's done he has blanked and when i say blanked i mean like legitimately blanked they have Kevin Holland did nothing actually statistically did zero things landed in attempted zero Zero strikes did nothing but get run over. And this is not the first time he's done that. I think Kevin Allen is a top 10 welterweight.

I also think Li Jean-Ling is like a top 15-20 welterweight. He did it to him both. He is doing this. Nobody has ever done this. The closest thing that's happened is Francis Ngano, who kept blowing people's heads off in 20 seconds. He still at least got hit back. Like this, this dude is something we all.

never seen. Like, we've just have never seen it. He is the best fighter in the world at 170 pounds. Really good chance he is also the best fighter in the world at 185 pounds. And I, that's, I, it all sucks. Everything about this week sucks, but it's, that's the truth, man. I don't know how else to put it. December 10th, 2022, UFC 282, Lehovic versus Ancolaev, Las Vegas, Nevada. Drickus Duplice is booked against his biggest name to date, former welterweight title challenger Darren Till. This matchup would also be Duplac's first time on a UFC pay-per-view main card. When it comes to the tough game, I mean, you haven't seen me give up in a fight.

I wish we could say the same about him. You know, all the respect in the world to Darantil, but at the end of the day, listen, I did say it and I did mean it. We've seen the best in the world in Darantil, and we've seen the worst of him. And I do believe Darantau has everything that it takes to be a champion, but not at middleweight. As I said, South Africans are nice guys, so I'm not even going to be for him. He's a nice kid. He'll see Saturday night.

I'm not so nice. No, of course. In the fight, you're a nasty guy, but he, you're a nice guy. You're a nice South African guy. So I love you, lad. In a breakout performance, DuPlessy finishes Till by rear naked choke midway through the third round. The bout earns Fight of the Night honors for Duplice and Till. Right now, I don't have a whole division to choose from anymore.

Our fights now, it's been limited to the top 10. That sounds good. And yeah, so whoever it is, first quarter of next year, I'll be ready to fight. Whoever they give me in that top 10, hopefully top five. I just want to have these, well, all the names I'm going to fight from now and I'll be, right? I guess that's how it works now. March 4th, 2023. UFC 285 Jones versus Gahn, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Drickus Duplice is set to face his highest ranked opponent to date, Derek Brunson. I had three world titles outside of the UFC. I was a K-1 amateur world champion before turning pro in MMA. I'm used to do the competition. So once I got my shot, I knew I wanted to go at this fast. I wanted to climb the ladder as fast as possible, fighting the best possible guys, and not refusing any fights. You know, if you can't beat this guy now, what do you want to do when you're champion?

I want to beat whoever they put in front of me, and I have been doing that. When they phone and say, we have an opponent for you, this is the guy. I've only fought guys ranked above me. I've said yes, and that's the ranks. And yeah, I'm coming for top five, and I'm absolutely ecstatic about that. Duplessi wins by corner stoppage with only one second left in the second round. Oh, man. That was the most DDP fight.

Like that was the most DDP, that was the most DG Brennan fight ever. That was the most like perfect for both of those guys, man. That fight was beautiful. The fight was the best worst fight of ever, not best, well, yeah, of this year at least. That was like the Rockold Costa of this year, you know, just like, just, just, this fight's horrible. I'm sorry. Rockold Casa. You mean my number three fight of 2022, Rockled?

Yeah. I hope DDP just sloppies his way into like a five-fight title reign somehow. Like I'm just so here for whatever this is. This is so fun. I've never seen the man get so tired so fast and yet somehow might better. This is a this is a night to celebrate. This is not a career to celebrate. This is not an ultimate celebration.

This is one. This is a night. This is just the same as my debut win. I'll be proper celebrating when I become champion. And this just put us one step closer. You know, getting, right now, I'm on the longest active win streak in the middleweight division. So nobody else putting their hand up to be the number one container. Nobody else winning the fights in the way that I'm winning the fights, getting the finishes.

And, you know, it's absolutely amazing coming from a team. Now, in South Africa with a style that people are sitting, huh, what this guy, he's not really good. Well, I'm just, I'm number five. And I just beat the number five in the world. So yes, I am that good. And my team, we are that good. And that is what this means to me.

This is not about the winner being in the top five. We're not celebrating that. But what we are celebrating is that we are that good. July 8, 2023, UFC 290 Volcanovsky versus Rodriguez, Las Vegas, Nevada. Drickus 2 Plus C continues his journey up the middleweight rankings and is now set to face perennial top-ranked and former middleweight champion Robert Whitaker on the main card of UFC 290. You know, fighting a guy like Robert Whitaker is... Yeah, fighting a guy like Robert Whitaker, you know, having nothing to lose, that's absolute BS.

I have everything to lose. Now, I have a goal to be the champion of the world, and Robert Whitaker is the next step in that ladder. It's a very, very, very tall order. But I believe I did everything I possibly could and I know I'm ready. to overcome this obstacle to get to the next stage and be the number one container. So having nothing to lose, I have absolutely everything to lose. And you'll see how I fight like somebody with everything to lose on Saturday night. He is an incredible, incredible fighter.

And, you know, people would say, where do you see holes in his game? And to see a hole in a game of somebody like Whitaker is extremely, extremely hard. And I don't think that's the way to go. I'm not looking for holes in any game. I'm looking to force mistakes and capitalizing on those. And that's exactly what I'm going to do when I go out there's enforce my style. And, you know, Whitaker shot for shot, he's extremely fast and he's very calculated. And when he gets his style going, when he's in his comfort zone, he's very, very dangerous.

And to make sure he doesn't get to that comfort zone, making sure I'm taking him out of that comfort zone into my world where it's a dark place and I feel at home. And a star-making performance, DDP demolishes and finishes Robert Whitaker midway through round two. The finish earns Duplice his third performance bonus in the UFC and would face off with the then current champion, Israel Adasanya, in the cage after the victory. The contender that goes into the cage, right? So, I mean, even he sees me as the champion already. So even he knows I'm the champion. And now that he's seen me in that cage, he knows what a force I am in there. You can feel the energy and I could feel how insignificant it is to me when we get into that cage.

I mean, you saw tonight. I'm prepared. I'm prepared for everything. Everything he says, anything. He's behaving like a clown in there. You know, that's not how a champion behaves. That's not at all man behaves. He's behaving like a child.

Conduct yourself like a champion. There's people looking up to you and you're behaving like that. No. You know, if that sells tickets, good for him. I'll sell tickets my way. I'm a gentleman, I'm a man, and I'll behave like a man. When you do get in the octagon with him, how do you think this fight goes? How do you beat him?

I'll knock him out just like I did tonight. You know, if not, we saw his fight with Alex Meherra. If I get him to the floor, it is not even a fight. It's not even a fight. If I just get my hands on him, it's not even a fight. I will manhandle him. I've done it before and I'll do it again. And, you know, as far as the striking goes,

look at let's take that out of the question you are as good as your last performance what did his performance his last performance look like against Whitaker yeah he beat him it was a close fight what did my last performance against Whitaker look like so right now that's how I plan of beating him the same way I beat Whitaker tonight by implementing the game plan and sticking to my style and doing what we do best listening to my coaches listening to the great monoe The great teammates I have at CIT, they got a small German South Africa coming up with game plans with this awkward style, the style that looks completely wrong to so many people. I'm the number one continuing the world right now.

So it's time to put some respect on that. He did it boys! He did it. I've been saying it for weeks. Dick is due plus C? Is he taking all my shine saying he manifested it? Izzy, you said it like once. I've been chanting it from the rooftops of YouTube.

Just do the thing. And he did it. And it's this is one of the, I won't say I'm wrong because we, none of us were wrong. It was just a dumb fight to make. I, I, I'll say I'm wrong. I will have to say I'm wrong. No, it was still a dumb fight to make because the risk was there. But the reward is so great because not only is this now like a number one with the bullet,

undeniable title fight with heat. But like I now actually believe DDP can win, which I did not a week ago or whatever. Not saying he will, but this man just stopped Robert Whitaker. Only one other dude has done that at middleweight and he happens to be the champion. And he did it and like it wasn't a white like he didn't rinse him or anything, but he was winning the fight. He won the first round, looked extremely good doing it and then just blew the doors off him in the second. Like nose job DDP boys. I was I was trying to tell you you and Brian Campbell in the rest of the world.

He's here. He is here. I am so pumped about this insane thing that's going to happen with these two. It's going to be so ugly. I mean, we got a preview of how ugly it is. And that is just the beginning, my friend. It's going to get awful. It's going to get a lot worse for it gets better.

But there is real heat here. We have a real matchup. Please God. don't do this for the Australia card. That is not enough time to let this marinate. That is too quick a turnaround for DDP. Let this cook. If you have to have Izzy fight,

Sean Strickland can go in there and DDP can sit cage side and wait and then fight Izzy afterwards, you know, early next year at whatever the big January February card's gonna be. But boys, he did it. I'm so proud of my large adults on Drickus Duplessi. Just well done, well done. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering,

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October 21, 2023. UFC 294, Mokachev v. Volcanov v. Volcanovsky 2, Abu Dhabi. Originally booked to face former title contender Palo Costa in the co-main event, Kamara Usman moves up in wait on short notice to face the undefeated Shemayev. Since day one, I get to the U.C., everyone spoke about like Hamdad, Uzman, Hamdad Uzman, our wrestling skills and striking, all these things, you know. Usman is like a fighter like me, but his old version, I knew, you know, just like different. like iPhones come out, his iPhones five, I'm like, pro, you know.

It's a different. So, yeah. In a competitive bout, Shamiyev wins a majority decision. First five minutes of that fight, I'm not Shemayev looked more superhuman than that dude has ever looked in a very superhuman Oxygon career so far, right? He looked like he's the next greatest fighter of all time. He looked like the goat against Kamar U.

for that first five minutes. And it was surreal to see someone manhandle Kamara Usman in the way that it's Hamza Shmaa was manhandling that man. Because we have just, we have so much distance with Kamara, right? Like we've been on this journey with Kamara. We have seen him fight a lot of tough challenges. I've never seen him get manhandle like that first five minutes. And then the next 10 happened, right?

And then you get the next two rounds. And now I don't know, right? Because ultimately you look at the, just from a wide lens, a broader scope. Hamsets Shemayev checked the most important box tonight. He absolutely did, right? He beat Kamar Usman. He is now the second man under the UFC banner to own a victory over Kamar Usman. And not just that.

I mean, this is impressive to me, at least, his four takedowns against Usman. That's four more times than any U.S.man had given up throughout like 17 UFC fights prior to this weekend. Right? Like, Usman was 36 of 37 on takedown defenses before this one. And then Hamzaa Shemayev comes in against four off him. That, to me, is a feather in his cap regardless of the circumstances that maybe surround this fight. but also, and that's the but, it's difficult for me to overlook those circumstances

in the grand scheme of things when we talk about Hamzaa Shemaya and who he could be at middleweight, right? Because I think that anyone out there right now watching this who watch this fight that have concerns now about Hamzat Shemai's potential gas tank, that feels probably pretty justified to me. After what we just saw, I mean, we just saw him face ultimately.

It's Kumar Usman still, but it is a 36-year-old Welterweight who was on a two-fight slime, who moved up on a division on less than two weeks notice. And I would have been fascinated to see how this played out if Uswan had another two rounds to work. I think, you know, once is kind of an anomaly, too, is starting to be a trend.

We have now seen the two fights Hamzaa's had where he didn't just absolutely run rough shot over the dude in the first round or did, but it got out of that. He struggled really, really hard down the stretch and now reports that he may have broken a hand, and that could affect it. I also think pretty clearly his cardio was not there,

and Casey and I were talking about this. That's not the kind of fight that you anticipate your cardio suffering. Like Hamzat was in dominant positions for four minutes of that fight, and those are substantially easier to hold, and by the end of that fight, it really did kind of look at Usman on 12 days notice. Like she said, if he had a couple more rounds, It felt like he was fresher moving forward there. So in that respect, you know, I have some questions about Homsup.

At the same time, I saw a ton of things that were really impressive. We've never seen anyone do that to Kamar Uzman. The way he was wrestling stood out to me the most. I mean, we know that he can. But Kamao U.S.man is like statistically the greatest defensive wrestler in UFC history. And Humsup had a pretty easy time once he got connected and getting his series rolling, his finishes on doubles, his blast power that he hit a couple of times. Like we've never seen Kamala Colby Covenant, All-American Wrestler,

and we have never seen Kamala Usman get run through the chest like that. So some impressive stuff. I thought he looked better on the feet, looked a little more confident, comfortable than we've seen him there. He's still getting better, and that's all good. January 20th, 2024. UFC 297 Strickland v. Duplice, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sean Strickland is set to face number one contender, the South African Drickus Duplice, in his first title defense.

For me right now, the last press conference was winning on the mic. I was winning the Sean Strickland at his own game. Right now, this week where we're at, I'm not here to do that. I'm here to be the middleweight champion of the world. My focus is on fighting and, you know, not. not making jokes, getting the crowds to laugh and, you know, no, that's not why I'm here. I'm here. I've already won that battle. That battle is won. Right now, the battle needs to be won is the one coming Saturday night and that's where my mind's at. My mind is at being ready,

mentally, physically and being in the best shape of my life comes Saturday night. I don't need to be fucking right. The people, fuck the people. If one day I wake up and like, you know, like the cuck and Gary, everybody hates me. You think I give a fuck? You think I give a fuck if I walk down the street and someone says, oh yeah, there's Sean Strickland. Fuck him. I don't care. Enjoy, motherfucker. You better just do it far enough away because I'll hit you. I'm not fucking Colby Covington, bro. I'm not like, you know, I'm fucking, yeah, I'm not Chris Curtis. I'm not going to delete my fucking Twitter. Like, you know, enjoy, man. You want to go call me a fucking, you know, whatever you want. Enjoy. Have that it. Just do it online.

Do you regret making comments about somebody's abusive background? Is that something that you think should be discussed? Well, he discussed it. So, you know, if you're going to go out there and say, hey, kids, you need to be abused more. Hey, kids, you need drunken rage, abused beatings by your parents like I got when I grew up. Then, I mean, that's you putting it out there.

That's you joking about it. I wasn't joking about it. I am going to beat the shit out of strong shirkland. That wasn't a joke. So he made those. comments he made it public and he was making a joke of it not me do I think it's it's good no it's terrible what happened to it's terrible what happened to it but now he felt I was completely respectful to which one second that whole press

conference and you can go watch it back and you'll see even when he threw a couple of jabs I just let it slide let it slide and then when he tried to get the crowd up and going the only way he knows how to by saying offensive stuff and being and outrageous and, you know, just screaming over everybody and he tried to bully me. And I wasn't going to let that slide. And that's what he did. That's what he, when he saw he couldn't get the crowd behind him like he usually does in terms of, you know, being funny because we were respectful towards each other.

He tried to be disrespectful. And I showed him what it feels like if you get some of your own medicine. So I was 100% and I do respect him a lot, but I'm not going to let you bully me. Not at all. I don't give a fuck about this, though. Like this is the fucking matrix man You guys understand like you guys You guys are all good fucking people

But you know like what I lose this fight I go back to the fucking apex We do our little song and dance For a couple more years And I vanish like This is all fucking bullshit I love you see

You know they give me lots of money I'm happy but like This is fucking We all know what I am We all know what we are Dreykis might wear a suit And he might say that I'm the champion I'm soft

But you are a fucking horse You take your fucking clothes off. Somebody says, I'm going to give you this much money to try to kill man. And I don't know. How do I forget that? Do I just make believe? Do I just pretend I'm fucking like a LeBron James flying around in a private jet? No, motherfucker.

No, that ain't going to happen. What? Do you think I can retire now? You think I got enough money to retire now? I'm a fucking champion in the world. Do you think I have enough money to retire now? Fuck no. I'll be working my ass a job if I were to leave.

Champ of the world. I mean jack shit. So as far as a belt goes, fucking favorite quote. They'll fight for 10 to ribbon, giving 10 to ribbon. We're just a bunch of fucking assholes trying to get a check. In one of the closest championship bouts in UFC history, DDP wins via split decision. And now the 30-year-old Drickis-Duplus C is the new middleweight UFC champion.

It was a close fight. I'd make no mistake. But I thought I had it. And then when that split decision came, I just went, okay this is 100% 50-50 and when they said and knew it was

it felt like 15 years of work of dreaming of sacrificing of everything came together in one single sentence it was it's incredible it feels surreal it's amazing do I want double champs

that is absolutely but I'm willing to to earn that if there's is contenders that make sense. I don't want to fight my contenders that doesn't make sense. You know, fighting Israel to Sanya makes sense. Fighting guys that deserve the title shots make sense.

But I don't want to just fight somebody because I don't want to be Israel Dissar that fought Sean Strickland. Yeah, Strickland won that fight, but they should have never fought, in my opinion. The narrative coming in to both of these gentlemen's career last year was that they weren't very good at fighting or that they had like pretty defined ceilings and then 2023 they did some big impressive things

obviously Sean Strickland becomes fighter of the year but I certainly had the question with Strickland more than DDP the way DDB had kept kind of going through it I felt that at the minimum he could compete like very long term maybe not long term but like that this was less of a fluke whereas I was genuinely questioning whether Sean Strickland was going to be a Cody Garbrandt like figure like a guy who gets to the title through you know some pretty fortunate circumstances has the

best performance of his career absolutely runs up a much more accomplished dominant champion and then falls off i thought that maybe that was in play i wanted to see how strickland sort of responded and he put on a great fight is that everyone's favorite fight is this going to be fight of the year no but i thought it was a captivating fight i can't wait to watch it back i thought there were a lot of tactical decisions going on. And while some of the backlash, certainly, and, you know, the big brain MMA bubbles is these dudes suck at fighting. I get how you get there because they're not pretty with it.

Like they are not brilliant technicians in all respects. But what they are doing works very well for their game and ended up leading to a, what I thought was a compelling and fun fight. I have no issue with the score. I wouldn't have had any issue if you scored it for Sean Strickland. and my biggest takeaway is that, yeah, these two dudes are two of the three best middleweights in the world. And I'm excited to sort of see this rivalry, which I got really pumped about last year and now feel somewhat vindicated that the fight was good. And we'll get a rematch at some point.

August 17th, 2024. UFC 305 Duplice versus Adasania, Perth, Western Australia. The middleweight champion Drickus Duplice is set to defend his title for the first time against the former champion and bitter rival, Israel Adasanya. When you win the belt again, do you plan on taking it back to Africa again? On Tuesday, I'm going back to Nigeria. I think Friday I'm going to South Africa, and then the next week I'm going back to New Zealand. I am a child of the earth. I'm a child of the earth.

And when I take this bet, I'm taking it everywhere with me. Thank you, bro. Thank you. Appreciate it. Question over here. Are you taking the servants with you when you're going back? Are you taking the servants with you if you're going back? What the fuck are you even on about?

My God, it's obviously a see and tell. We can see that. What do you mean? You're saying that I made it about culture. Bro, shut the fuck up. You don't even know anything about my story. You have no idea who the fuck I am. I don't care about your story.

I don't care about your story. Listen, my father and myself had to wake up at 4 a.m. and clean the banks while my mom studies to be a nurse. You don't know my fucking story. Amen. Don't fucking speak of my story if you don't know my story. I don't care. I'll show you who you are Sunday.

So right now, shut the fuck up. I can't wait. I can't wait. I'm back. I made it about anything else. You did. You did. You couldn't even respect the people of the land.

I am the first. The country. You were the one not even doing anything. I took my shoes off to connect with the people, with the mob. What did you? Did you stand there and try to mean mug me? Are you stupid?

My man. I'm not your fucking man, bitch. This is my land. Oh shit. Just not that. You're gonna do what I did take as the first residing African. That was exactly it. You can't change that.

I'll slay, you porky pig. Shut up, PinkFit. You can't change the facts, but you can't change those facts. I know you said you manifested this when you were watching the Robert Whitaker's fight. How has this energy from Drickus today in the buildup? How's the energy from Drickus today and in the buildup? from Drickers today and into the buildup, has it matched to what you manifested and imagined

leading into this? And what are you feeling right now from the energy in the room? I, he touched the subject there, because I do this for my family. I do this for the people I love and I will fight for you forever. I swear to God. Watch this, look, I'm a fucking human being. I am a man.

I can cry and whoop your ass at the same time. I feel the love from the crowd. First time I fought here, 2-2-1, That was February 2018. That was me making my dream come true. Sunday, I'm going to fucking kill your dreams, bitch. I want to fucking kill your dreams. Duplice successfully defends his title by submitting the last style bender in round four.

Oh, thanks the best. You mentioned my first successful title defense and people go, yeah, you're not a champion until you defend that belt. That's bullshit. You're champion when you win that belt. but I wasn't a champion walking out there tonight before I walk out and I said this whole week before I walk out there they take the ballot off me

the winner of this fight is the champion so nobody's a champion when that first bow goes I went out there tonight to fight for the world title and I became champion tonight and you could see that in the fight I went out there to fight like somebody who wanted this belt and not somebody who defended it

like I said I'm still not Israel Adasanya, we are not friends because on a personal level, we do not see eye to eye. But warrior to warrior, after spending that time with him in that octagon and what he's achieved in the sport, I can, it's no secret. I respect that. And after spending the time with him in the octagon, you can't not respect that man. He's what he's done in the sport. So to give him that jacket was a, it was a token of a, it was a reminder, token of

appreciation, thank you for this. It's a memory for me. It's a such a massive moment in my life fighting a great fighter like Israel to Sanya. I brought the jacket here specifically to give it to him before the fight. I brought it with me to give it, you know, it was going to be win or lose. I was going to give him that because he said he wants to fight warriors from all the lands and I respect that. And I wanted to give him that as a token of appreciation of. fighting and giving me that amazing fight and bringing the best out of me and also as a as something to remember this magic moment of all africa main event um let me i mean if stricken's the next fight the people want to see that fight that's the fight that people want to see and that's the fight

right now that people think is the next best guy then it's the fight that i want so let me handle my business you handle your business you don't have to cut the way to you have some sort of excuse I'll come up after the Strickland fight. I'll come up to 205 and we'll sort it out there. So you think just one more tail of defense and you'll be ready to change divisions? No, but I mean if that's what the U.C. wants, I mean, I'll be ready for it right now. But I'm not chasing that. I believe to be considered as the greatest to ever do this sport,

I need to be considered as the greatest middleweight first. So, yeah, I mean, I'm the first guy to beat Israel to Sanya and Robert Whitaker. I beat three of the top 20 pound for pound fighter, so can I please get back in the top 10? So I beat Shikton, I beat Whitaker, and I beat Alessania. I can't wait to see. I haven't been on social media. I can't wait to see what the critics say now. October 26, 2024, UFC 308, Teporia versus Holloway, Abu Dhabi.

Hamza Chimaeif is set to face former middleweight champion Robert Whitaker in the co-main event. for the pay-per-view. They say that it's going to be Dorikas versus Sean Strickman for the title nix. But if you go out there and you finish Robert Whitaker in one or two rounds,

do you think that the UFC will have to say, okay, no, it's how it's how much it's at next? I hope so, but they said that before as well. When I've been to Cuba Burns, how long time was

until three years ago, I didn't fault my chance. After that, if it beats, it was smart, if it beats was small, and I'd fight for the title. Did I put it. So, we'll see.

But I'm happy. with the money. I'm making more money and an HAP as well. So I think long-term, Whitaker needs this more, but short-term, it's 1,000% Hamzaat Shabayev because this, we have been waiting for a, we've been waiting for Hamzat to get a kind of fight like this since day one. The Gilbert Burns fight was a great test at 170 and Gilbert gave him the business and it was an incredible fight and to be in that building for when that fight happened was unbelievable. Yes, he fought Kamar Usman, but it was also on like a week's notice and neither was at their best and Shemayev got hurt early and the fight got a little closer. So we never, I don't think we

ever got like the real fight that could happen between the two of those guys. But this one is it. You got Bobby Freakened Knuckles, former champion, future Hall of Famer. And then you have Hamzaa who looks different, he talks different, he approaches fights differently. Everything about him just seems different. And I don't know what that means, Jed. I don't know if this is a guy who is just going to be more of a calculated fighter, or this is just sort of a mind game where he's setting everybody up, and then he's going to come out and get shot out of a cannon right at Robert Whitaker

and try to maul this man. I don't know what is going to happen here in a shockingly viand. silent performance, Shemayev defeats Whitaker by face crank, a little over halfway into round one. Oh, tapped a me out. Did he break his jaw? He must have broke something because Whitaker tapped. I mean, that wasn't under the shot. Whoa.

I, we ought to see what happened because that. Sean Strickland ain't getting a title shot. Sorry. Not at all. That was like across the faceish, but even really before Chimae had got it locked in, lock in, lock those punches were nasty. And they were just, those were panic taps. That was a tap, tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap. Yeah, that's not really a crank there. That's more compression on the jaw. Like, that's not the next turning. Yeah. It was in. Unless I'm mistaking something, Casey, let me know if I'm reading this, but that doesn't look like a crank crank.

That looks like compression on the jaw. Wow. Which I'm not disputing. That's a fine reason to tap. But it just means man's got hell of squeeze for Whitaker to be panic tapping that quick. I want to five, everyone just make money. Be happy. It looks like Robert Whitaker has dentures that got pushed to the back of his mouth, but he don't.

Those are just his teeth that got shoved out of them like you're popping pills out of a pack. It was disgusting. We were on the watch party. We were like, man, that was a really, really quick tap. Like, maybe broke his jaw. Yeah, I would tap quickly too if my dad. teeth were threatening to go down my uvula. That was disgusting. And if you were Robert Whitaker, I am so sorry for you and I hope you recover well and come back in a year. I don't know how long

that takes to recover from. Emotionally, I would never recover from that if I looked at my own teeth and they were that. February 8, 2025, UFC 312, Duplice versus Strickland 2, Sydney, Australia. Drickus Duplice is set to make his second title defense against the very person he took it from in Toronto, Canada, one year prior, Sean Strickland as the main event in Sydney, Australia. I did the right things to win that fight. He is going to make adjustments to be better, and I have to do the same thing. It's not that I have to do anything different. I just have to do whatever I've been doing better. I've had a year now to improve upon that performance.

to be fitter, stronger. And in terms of strength, that's not a problem. Just being cleaner, picking the shots better, being more patient. This is not my first UFC title fight anymore. And I know I can push that pace for five rounds. So that changes my dynamic, but I'm not going into this fight thinking it's the same fight as the first one. He's going to make the adjustments. He knows what it's like in there with me.

Just like I know what he's like. Like I know what he's doing and how, you know, his team is incredible. He has an incredibly good coach. Coach Eric is very well respected and the world's respect for him. And I know he's a master at the game plan and figuring it out. But so is my coaches and my team. So, yeah, very similar in fight because we both now know and how much could have really changed. It's just about being cleaner and better at everything.

This time, DDP leaves no doubt and cruises to a lopsided unanimous decision in the rematch. I told you guys the whole week, I'm going to try and knock him out, try and submit him or try, if this goes to the decision, complete domination. And that's what happened. I thought he was going to initiate the wrestling. He tried at some stage, but it was too late. And, I mean, I just felt great. I felt great out there tonight to show progression. That was the biggest thing to show that I can submit the best in the world,

a guy that's never been submitted. I can go out there and knock people out, and I can go out there and outpoints a guy that outpoints anybody and do it over five rounds. That was a big one for me tonight, and there was a big performance. To stay calm, you know, when I got his nose, I didn't say that calm, but that was just me smelling blood. but I got back to where I needed to be

and it was incredible performance. It felt great. Hamzad's next. Hamzad is next. I want to make sure that this belt, the middleweight title, that there's no question that I'm the goat of the middleweight division.

And I know that, you know, you have Anderson Silva. In my mind, he is the goat of this division. And you have Adasania who's done incredible things. But it's not about how many times just you defend. It's about who you fight,

how you defend it, and how you've done it in what period of time have you done it, and who have you fought, and making sure that there's no question that I am the best middleweight then going up. So I'm not rushing that my next fight is Alex Beharo. No, no, no.

I wonder Hamza next. I think he deserves a hiding. So I'm sure he's watching this. He's already been tweeting at you a lot after this fire. I doubt you've seen it. No, I've seen it. Yeah, you can see he really tweeted. Usually when it makes sense,

it's his agent, when it doesn't make sense, you know he actually tweeted. So do you have a mess? I'm sure he's watching. Do you have a message for him? No, stay out of the cold. August 16th, 2025, UFC 319, Duplasee versus Shemayev, Chicago, Illinois. The 14-0 Hamzat Shemayev is set to challenge for his first UFC title

as he challenges middleweight champion Drickis Duplice in the main event in the promotions return to the Windy City. Chicago, Illinois.