Sean O’Malley is backing Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 after seeing Israel Adesanya ‘dominate’ Dricus du Plessis

Sean O’Malley was impressed by how Israel Adesanya performed in defeat against the UFC middleweight champion, and he thinks Khamzat Chimaev will go a step further.

All eyes are on the 185-pound division in August, as reigning titleholder Dricus du Plessis faces a challenge that many are deeming to be the hardest of his unbeaten UFC profession up to now.

Chimaev has yet to taste defeat in MMA and most recently ran through Robert Whittaker by means of submission in 2024. After quite a few health problems prior to now stalled his push toward UFC gold, ‘Borz’ finally gets his probability within the foremost event of UFC 319 on August 16.

And lower than two weeks out from the event at Chicago’s United Center, O’Malley has made his pick.

Sean O’Malley chooses Khamzat Chimaev to dethrone Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319

After seeing Chimaev crush Whittaker with a face crank last October, many quickly pointed to the Chechen as a contender able to doing what some distinguished names have didn’t to date.

Since his crowning, Du Plessis has beaten Adesanya and the person he unseated, Sean Strickland, in a rematch to successfully defend his title twice. During an appearance on Mike Perry’s Overdogs Podcast, O’Malley suggested that’s where the South African’s perfect UFC run will end.

‘Suga’ gave his pick for the UFC 319 foremost event after rewatching Adesanya’s title challenge against ‘Stillknocks’ 12 months ago. Despite Du Plessis submitting ‘The Last Stylebender’, O’Malley believes Adesanya enjoyed dominance over the champ for much of the UFC 305 headliner.

“Khamzat vs. DDP could be very exciting for me without delay,” O’Malley said. “I just watched DDP vs. Israel this morning before practice. Dude, Izzy was looking so good in that fight…DDP took over, but dude, Izzy was for probably the most part dominating.

“I feel like Khamzat is tough to count out; DDP is just too. Obviously, everyone keeps counting him (Du Plessis) out each fight and he comes on the market and does it.

“Khamzat, after what he did to Whittaker, the way in which he did it to Whittaker, it’s like, holy — yeah, I’mma go together with Khamzat on that,” O’Malley added.

Dricus du Plessis is promising to prove his doubters mistaken again at UFC 319

From Du Plessis knocking out Whittaker to the title crowning and defenses which have followed, the South African has made a habit out of proving his haters mistaken contained in the Octagon.

And Du Plessis made the same UFC 319 promise, vowing to change into the primary to defeat Chimaev in MMA and further cement himself on the middleweight throne.

“I don’t care how good you think that you’re, how tough, how fit, or how strong,” Du Plessis wrote on Instagram.

“Once you step into that octagon with me, it would be a first-time experience and never a nice one.

“That’s a promise. As we are saying in 🇿🇦 built different!! #stillknocks #preparetobeamazed.”


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