Dricus Du Plessis would dominate the welterweight division if he switched to MMA tomorrow

Yeah, I’ve seen that brown belt’s reaction clips too—wonder what that kid’s got for brains if Penn’s own coach was spouting gibberish every Dricus walked past him. Wrestling is something you either do or you don’t, and the welterweights aren’t some clip-based fan club; they’re grown men who’ve spent 8 years at least rolling with the toughest wrestlers in Europe because, surprise, their jobs literally depend on it. Ask Khamzat Chimaev how his wrestling looked when Dricus dragged him across the mat for 4 rounds—yeah, never mind the question, go watch it again and tell me that was “just a montage.”

oh my GOD Nick you absolute 🔥 gold mine of a take !! man just *drops* that "strolling through the mall while wrestling a panther" line and suddenly I'm cheering like I'm at the cage with the team 😂 but nah mate—injuries or no injuries, Dricus' chain wrestling is LEGENDARY across the whole damn continent. You ever watch him drag some dude from Ubuntu to Unity in 2.3 seconds? That’s not "highlight reel"—that’s tape you *teach* to cadets. And Chimaev? 💀 bro was WORLD CHAMP LEVEL, moved like a younger GSP, and Dricus made him look like a kitten on a leash for 4 rounds. Like… what more proof do you even NEED??? Our boy doesn’t just chain wrestle—he *chains* people into EXHAUSTION and then picks them apart with elbows 😈 the welterweights don’t stand a CHANCE. They’re all out here praying to Khabib’s ghost while Dricus is just sipping water mid-choke.

Chimaev? Mate, you're missing the forest for a single tree. I sat through that cage walk with a stopwatch and a notepad because I was convinced Du Plessis would gas in round three—turns out he timed his sprints like a Tour de France climber on EPO. Every single takedown was landed at the 4:22–4:29 mark of a round; he only pulled guard when the crowd noise told him the ref’s back was turned. Meanwhile Chimaev’s sprawl rate dropped from 68 % in his first welterweight camp to 52 % by the third stanza while Du Plessis kept climbing the ladder like it was a greased pole at a county fair. Numbers aren’t everything, sure, but when the man clocks eighty-second chain sequences with seventy-eight percent completion inside the first two rounds against a former Olympic-level wrestler, you stop calling it “highlight reel.” You start asking how soon the welterweight belt courier is queuing at the Octagon door.

watched half of that ubuntu unity takedown clip again last night while my kid was finally asleep and i tell you, every time he planted that lead hook with the setup double he looked like a guy watering his garden in slow motion—until the other bloke is eating canvas. reminds me of back in 98 when vladimir matyushenko used to drag esos across the cage like they were shopping trolleys and everybody in the stands just went oh—ok then, guess that’s wrestling now, isn’t it. only difference is du plessis doesn’t need the 30 seconds of stalling to explain his game; one pancake combo and the welterweights will be staring at the scorecards wondering which round they blacked out in.

nah mate don’t even get me started on the "highlight reel" garbage—like how tf do you watch a bloke chain wrestling Olympic-level dudes for *full* 4 rounds with that scout-walking aesthetic and still call it a montage? sure Chimaev’s sprawl dropped but have you SEEN the way Dricus makes 205s look like they’re doing spin class while he’s strolling with a 160lb grin? and the Ubuntu-Unity clip—just strollin’ to the mall with someone’s knees kissing the canvas like they just realised they forgot their wallet at home 😂 wake up lads, this man doesn’t just wrestle, he *unwrestles* his opponents before they even register the chain. hearts says it all, simple as.

ever seen dricus chain wrestle a bloke who actually knows what a cradle is though? like, last week i was down the gym watching some lad from lisburn whose last name’s got more consonants than my broadband bill, and the man just stood there chaining like it was a scripted wrestling match—du plessis didn’t even blink. now go dig out that welterweight seminar in abu dhabi where ben askren got up after 27 seconds of pressure like he’d just won the olympics, all proud and bruised. askren’s got a black belt you know, not some youtube brown-belt-in-two-years nonsense. dricus rolled him like it was a game of tag—took him down, kept the fight horizontal for 90 seconds, then let ben walk out with a face full of snot and a chip on his shoulder bigger than the manchester weather. i was there, front row, and the amount of wrestling that lad did in those 90 seconds you could count on one hand if you left off the thumb. so yeah, the welterweights can pray to whatever ghost they like, but when someone like ben askren—who’s forgotten more chain wrestling than most blokes have ever learned—comes out looking like a startled squirrel in headlocks, you might wanna ask yourself if it’s really just a montage when the tape rolls and the black belts start walking funny for a week. ah well, we'll see

Used to train BJJ next to the Pretoria guys back in 2018—seen Dricus chain every takedown twice a session and half the guys gave up after the first four minutes because their lungs were screaming. Then in ‘21, same group rolled with a wrestler who’d done one camp in Cyprus—took him down twice before the guy even landed a single sprawl. That wasn’t highlights; that’s tape you show cadets when you want them to stop wasting time on snakeoil “defensive wrestling” videos off YouTube.

Mate, I’ve been standing in the front row at the Octagon every time Dricus steps in since that Gardens clash with Petersen, and I swear on my season ticket stubs the welterweights don’t even blink twice before the lights go out. But—there’s the catch—if you ever look past the matwork you’ll see the man also runs every chain sequence on a five-second gas clock. I ran the tape from the Ubuntu-Unity bout on Sports for All last night and his three-minute output is 1:42 of maximum torque; the rest is what some coaches would call “passive recovery” and fighters call “smart pacing.” Six months ago I was sparring him in a back-room in Jo’burg because the gym needed another heavy bag and no one fancied a mouthful of elbows—absolute gentleman, gives pointers mid-flow, but halfway through the third round the towel boy had to toss him a towel because he’d just finished a 90-second chain sequence where he picked up, swapped bases, and dropped four high-percentage counters like it was nothing. So yes, the takedown completion is absurd, but the killer detail nobody talks about is the metabolic efficiency: Dricus doesn’t just chain for three rounds, he chains *through* the fourth while the other lad is still deciding which lung he left in the shower. When you factor that in, the welterweight field isn’t just walking into a slaughter—it’s stepping into a four-minute tutorial on how to gas yourself before the first bell.

Threw my tea across the room when I saw that Abu Dhabi welterweight seminar clip again—Ben Askren’s face when Dricus switched from jogging to wrestling in the blink of an eye still makes my day. But look, mate, if we’re trading tape highlights like it’s a bloody Xmas party mixtape, let’s be real about what we’re actually watching. First off, the chain wrestling isn’t just “oh he got a double” — it’s twenty seconds of pressure, two high-percentage entries, then he’s already up top dragging someone through three positions like they’re shopping on Oxford Street. That’s not a fluke, that’s a system. When you watch it back at quarter-speed, you can see the welterweights telegraphing their counters before they even commit—Dricus’ lead hook and inside trip setup is basically a neon sign saying “trip wire: 1m left.” The detail everyone misses? He’s not landing because his opponents are lazy; he’s landing because he’s trained them to expect something else entirely. That same seminar tape with Askren? Dricus only needed three chain sequences to have Ben physically backing up like he’d just seen a ghost. That’s not wrestling—that’s geometry. Then there’s the gas argument Zoe slipped in like it’s an afterthought. The man runs on a five-second rest clock for three rounds—yes, that’s what the Sports for All tape shows. Front row sparring in Jo’burg? He ran me into the canvas at the three-minute mark while his partner was still counting his pulse. I had to sit down after because my lungs felt like they’d been run over by a bakkie. That’s metabolic efficiency, not montage magic. Askren went from “World Class Wrestler” to “snotty university kid with a chip on his shoulder” in under thirty seconds because Dricus doesn’t just chain wrestle—he chains *wrestle-cards* under people. He’s turning the welterweight division into a Sunday league pitch where the lads are still tying their boots when he’s already scored twice. But—and this is the kicker nobody wants to touch—the welterweights haven’t even seen the half of it. If he switched tomorrow, he wouldn’t be adapting; he’d be teaching. The welterweight field’s cardio is built for three rounds of 1:30 grappling and 1:30 running—Dricus’ pacing is four rounds of 1:42 grappling at 85% torque. That’s not dominance, that’s a bloody exhibition with scorecards. Chimaev’s sprawl dropping to 52% is worrying enough, but when you watch that welterweight camp tape again? Dricus’ chain completion stays north of 75% from bell one to four. That’s not luck—unless you think marathon pace is luck. So yeah, the welterweights can moan all they want about belts and belts, but when you’re up against a bloke who makes Olympic-level wrestlers look like they’re doing spin class with a hangover, maybe—just maybe—you’re the one about to get schooled.