Bo Nickal explains why Dricus du Plessis won't be able to game-plan for Khamzat Chimaev

Bo Nickal recently opened up on the possibility of Dricus cu Plessis coming up with a game plan to counter Khamzat Chimaev's wrestling. Nickal also rated his wrestling pedigree close to Chimaev.

Du Plessis has earned victories over a few UFC fighters with a good ground game, including Derek Brunson. The reigning middleweight champ also boasts a couple of submission victories in the UFC on account of his commendable ground game. However, cu Plessis's general approach to a fight indicates that he prefers a stand-and-strike style fight over a wrestling-heavy one.

On the contrary, du Plessis' upcoming rival, Chimaev, has shot for takedowns in the first rounds of the majority of his UFC encounters. After several previous instances, 'Borz' proved his wrestling pedigree again at UFC 308 with a dominant victory over Robert Whittaker in the first round.

Nickal recently weighed in on the du Plessis vs. Chimaev fight in one of his recent interviews with Home Of Fight. After analyzing multiple aspects, the Pennsylvania native gave the edge to Chimaev in the potential fight due to his high-class wrestling.

Nickal also opined that du Plessis wouldn't to able to work out an effective strategy to counter Chimaev's wrestling since he hadn't faced anything like it to date:

"I think I’d give the edge to Khamzat because of that wrestling advantage. You just don’t get [to train] against strong grapplers like that [Chimaev]. You’re not used to that. No matter what Dricus is gonna do, he’s not gonna be able to gameplan for that, [because] he’s not gonna felt [feel] that from anyone."

Check out Bo Nickal's comments below (20:45):

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Dricus du Plessis hailed Magomed Ankalaev's gameplan to tackle Alex Pereira's striking

Much like Khamzat Chimaev's wrestling, many in the UFC community believed Alex Pereira to have one of the best striking skillsets on the current UFC roster. However, the reigning light heavyweight champ, Magomed Ankalaev, shut down Pereira's striking prowess during their UFC 313 encounter to win the fight via unanimous decision.

Ankalaev and his team's strategy to counter Pereira's striking also earned him appreciation from Drcisu du Plessis, apart from the UFC light heavyweight title. Du Plessis shared an Instagram reel showcasing moments of Ankalaev's brilliance along with a caption to appreciate his "gameplan" for the fight. His words read:

"The gameplan was on point well done team @ankalaev_magomed [Magomed Ankalaev's Instagram username]"