Dominick Cruz has pointed out what he sees as the biggest hole in Dricus Du Plessis’s game.
Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) was thoroughly beaten by Khamzat Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in the main event of UFC 319 last Saturday, losing his middleweight title in the process.
“Stillknocks” struggled to mount any offense against the Chechen, spending long stretches trapped in a mounted crucifix position.
While the South African failed to land anything significant on the feet, his lack of offense off his back proved equally costly. According to former UFC bantamweight champion Cruz, Du Plessis’s inability to create separation and work back to his feet was the key factor behind Chimaev’s dominant victory.
“We watched Khamzat completely destroy DDP with pure grappling,” Cruz said in a video posted to his Instagram account. “Like, he couldn't even escape one time. And that's what was shocking to me…(it) was not that DDP got taken down, it's that he could not escape. He had no tools to create any separation, not even one time (per) round.”
Chimaev has faced criticism from some UFC fans for not pressing for a finish and instead cruising to a dominant decision win. But Cruz doesn’t fault “Borz” for taking that approach—instead, he believes Du Plessis deserves part of the blame.
“If you're Khamzat, that's the way you want to do it,” Cruz said. “If you give him an option to just hold you down and put you out like a cigarette butt, he's going to do it because he doesn't have to get punched. So everybody's going to take that option. It's just usually somebody can create separation. That's how good Khamzat is.
“If you cannot stop the takedown, it's okay, but you have to be able to get up and create space. That is the next level of mixed martial arts. It's not if you get taken down, it's when. But the big question is, do you have enough jujitsu to use your guard to get back to your feet, to use your side mount, to use a half guard? Do you have options to get off your back and create space? Because if you don't, the guy who can keep it there will, and he's going to make it an easy fight because he doesn't want to get punched in the face. And that's how they're all going to go. So it's fun to watch the progression of the sport come in: strikers, grapplers, strikers, grapplers. But right now, it's the era of the grappler, especially with Khamzat in there.”
