UFC 319 Main Event Odds, Picks And Predictions: Du Plessis Vs. Chimaev
UFC 319 takes place at the United Center in Chicago. The UFC 319 main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
UFC 319 Main Event Preview: Dricus du Plessis Vs. Khamzat Chimaev
Dricus du Plessis (23-2) joined the UFC in October 2020 as a 26-year-old with a 14-2 record. Before he joined the UFC, Du Plessis had won titles with KSW and EFC. He made his debut against Markus Perez on the main card of a UFC Fight Night event in Abu Dhabi. Du Plessis knocked out Perez in the first round. He followed that win with a July 2021 'Performance of the Night' KO win of Trevin Giles.
Those two wins earned him a shot against the ranked veteran Brad Tavares. Du Plessis won that scrap via decision. The victory put him in the top 15 of the division. A December 2022 submission win over Darren Till moved Du Plessis to No. 10 in the division. A TKO win over the No. 5 ranked Derek Brunson followed.
Du Plessis, who was working his way up the rankings, faced a tough test in his next outing when he met the No. 2 ranked Robert Whittaker at UFC 290. Du Plessis continued his rise, knocking out the former UFC champion in the UFC middleweight title eliminator and earning another 'Performance of the Night' bonus.
More important than the bonus was the title shot Du Plessis received for that win. He faced then-champion Sean Strickland in January, taking the title from Strickland in a 'Fight of the Night' bonus-winning scrap
In his first title defense Du Plessis picked up an August 2024 submission win over former UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya.
Du Plessis most recently faced Strickland in a rematch at UFC 312 in early February of this year. Du Plessis won that contest via unanimous decision.
I wrote of the champ after that fight, "Dricus du Plessis looked much more controlled and less reckless at UFC 312 than in many of his previous battles. He mixed up his striking techniques and targets against Sean Strickland, landed the more powerful blows, and didn't put himself in too many awkward positions.
"Du Plessis did a much better job in his UFC 312 rematch against Strickland in shutting down his foe's offense. In the first fight, Strickland landed 173 of 408 significant strikes. While in the rematch, Strickland was held to 128 landed strikes on 263 attempts. Meanwhile, Du Plessis increased his landed strikes and landing percentage from the first fight to the second. In the first battle, Du Plessis landed 137 of 354 attempts for a landing rate of 38 percent. At UFC 312, the champ landed 147 of 314 attempts for a striking rate of 46 percent.
'Du Plessis has defended the UFC middleweight crown twice while going 9-0 in the UFC. Despite his winning ways, the champ remains a bit of an enigma because his style shouldn't work — but it does.'
Chimaev (14-0) is the No. 3 fighter in the official UFC middleweight rankings. The 30-year-old made his UFC debut in July 2020 with a second-round submission win over John Phillips. He followed that victory with a first-round TKO over Rhys McKee 10 days later, breaking the UFC record for the quickest turnaround between UFC wins in the modern era. Then, in September, Chimaev knocked out Gerald Meerschaert.
Things slowed down for Chimaev after that. He was booked to face Leon Edwards in December 2020, but that matchup never came to be despite multiple attempts to make the fight happen. The reason behind the numerous cancellations of Edwards vs. Chimaev was COVID-19.
When Chimaev finally returned to the Octagon in October 2021, he made short work of Li Jingliang, scoring a submission at 3:16 of Round 1.
In his next bout, Chimaev went the distance for the first time in his career, picking up a victory over Gilbert Burns. He followed that with a submission over Kevin Holland.
A break of more than a year followed that victory. Chimaev's next outing was an October 2023 matchup against Kamaru Usman, a fight that Chimaev won via decision.
A year after that, Chimaev made short work of Robert Whittaker, defeating the ex-UFC middleweight champ via submission (face crank) in the first round of their UFC 308 scrap.
UFC 319 Main Event Betting Lines And Movement: Dricus du Plessis Vs. Khamzat Chimaev
According to BetOnline, Du Plessis opened as the +165 betting underdog to Chimaev, who was listed as the -190 betting favorite. The betting lines have moved since then. Today, Du Plessis comes in at +185, while Chimaev is listed at -220.
UFC 319 Main Event Tale Of The Tape: Dricus du Plessis Vs. Khamzat Chimaev
Age: 31
Height: 6'1'
Reach: 76'
Stance: Switch
Age: 31
Height: 6'2'
Reach: 75 '
Stance: Orthodox
UFC 319 Main Event Predictions And Picks: Dricus du Plessis Vs. Khamzat Chimaev
If Khamzat Chimaev figures out Dricus du Plessis he will be the first UFC fighter to do so. Du Plessis is an anomaly He doesn't have great technical skills, but he doesn't lose under the UFC. On paper he shouldn't be a UFC champion, but he is.
As for Chimaev, he too is a fighter that we have questions about. He has good technical grappling skills and is an explosive starter, but he has very questionable cardio.
Most of the talk around this fight is that if Du Plessis can survive the first round he should be able to take over with his striking and rack up points for the win, but that's a big if when it comes to someone as aggressive and explosive as Chimaev.
The betting pick is for Du Plessis to win a decision or via late knockout. However, a pick for Chimaev to win via early submission is not out of line.
We will have more on the UFC 319 main event, Du Plessis vs. Chimaev, as fight night nears, as well as live results, reactions, highlights and more for the UFC 319 pay-per-view card on fight night
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
After one year, this MLB postseason schedule innovation is no longer
The World Series could end in November this year. Major League Baseball can do without all the "Mr. November" jokes, so the league took a creative step last year: a flexible start date for the World Series. It's not easy to cram a four-round postseason in a month. But it's even less ideal if the World Series teams roll through the league championship series, then sit around for close to a week before the World Series starts. MLB unveiled this creative reform last year: If both World Series teams complete the league championship series in no more than five games, the start of the World Series would move up three days. Nothing kills interest in an everyday sport like a week off before the most important games of the season. The reform did not come into play last season. Although the New York Yankees won the American League Championship Series in five games, the Dodgers needed six games to complete the NLCS. Read more: Yoshinobu Yamamoto rocked by Zach Neto and Angels as Dodgers' NL West lead falls to 1 When MLB announced its postseason schedule Tuesday, the flexible start date for the World Series was gone. With the Dodgers coming within one victory of making that happen last season, league officials and television partners had the chance to prepare for two possibilities for the start of the World Series. The uncertainty of what date to promote, and the need for alternate travel plans and hotel blocks, left the parties with the thought that a fixed date for the World Series remained a better plan. The World Series this year is set to start on Friday, Oct. 24, with a possible Game 7 on Saturday, Nov. 1. The wild-card round starts Tuesday, Sept. 30, with the division series round starting Saturday, Oct. 4. The teams with the top two records in each league earn a bye in the first round and advance directly to the division series. If the postseason started Tuesday, the Dodgers (68-51) would be the No. 3 seed in the NL, behind the Milwaukee Brewers (74-44) and the Philadelphia Phillies (69-49). The wild card teams, in order of seed, would be the Chicago Cubs (67-50), San Diego Padres (67-52) and the New York Mets (63-55). In that scenario, the Dodgers and Mets — the NLCS combatants last season — would meet in the wild-card round this season. Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The end of the UFC pay-per-view era is bittersweet
Back in 2009, Dana White swore that if UFC 100 did a million pay-per-view buys he'd bungee jump off the Mandalay Bay. (It did, he didn't). When UFC 151 was canceled after Jon Jones refused an opponent switch, White called Jones' coach, Greg Jackson, a 'sport killer.' It left a crater in the UFC's schedule that only MMA fans could fully appreciate. A few years later, when Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz shattered the PPV record at UFC 196, it was a testament to how big the sport had become. We cared about those numbers as much as we did the outcome. Since UFC 1, when people paid out of morbid curiosity, pay-per-views have been a vital part of the identity of this sport. It's hard to get nostalgic over being gouged, and what follows here shouldn't be mistaken as such, but Monday's news of the UFC's coming $7.7 billion partnership with Paramount came with a small pang of sadness upon realizing the PPV model will soon belong to a bygone era. In our sport, people have long huddled around a UFC PPV as if it were a religious rite. When social media was gaining steam in the early-2010s, UFC PPVs were ladled out on Twitter (now X), 140 characters at a time from those on the ground level, as if they were transmissions from the war. Any MMA fan who didn't spring for the then-$59.99 price tag suffered instant FOMO. Why? Because getting the PPV meant attending the party. A sacrifice, it's true, but also a shared experience. The price of admission kept unserious fans out. What lurked behind the paywall was the sport's everything, and the feeling of camaraderie for any of us who willingly paid the door fees was priceless. A typical Monday conversation might go something like this: 'Did you get Saturday's pay-per-view?' 'Damn right I did. That GSP is a freaking monster.' 'I can't believe Dan Hardy didn't tap.' 'Dude is Gumby!' A UFC PPV stood for 'can't-miss event' for what was essentially a continuing saga — a long-running, fighting soap opera that early aficionados deemed sacred. Of course, it wasn't nearly as hipster as it sounds. If nothing else, the UFC has always been anti-hipster. It gladly poured Monster Energy drink over men in capris. It was more like a monthly concentration of our greatest focus, to see firsthand the best the sport could offer, which gave MMA its sense of community. It was a choice that could be regretted in the end — anybody who sprung for UFC 149 from Calgary never fully recovered from that groin kick — yet it was a choice we made because we didn't care for the alternative. All of this largely held true into the 2020s, even though pirating and illegal streams have long done away with the sacrifice. A few years ago, Dana proclaimed he was going to go after pirates himself, and it was fun to imagine him in a suburban tree with his binoculars searching through windows for glitchy Russian streams. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time that PPVs could be on the way out. The WWE, which is run by the same TKO ownership group as the UFC, came to that conclusion a couple of years back. The UFC has been tied to a dying animal, and it will be for five more PPVs in 2025. Still, you worry about the sport of MMA losing some of the vital distinction that made it. UFC Fight Night events, especially those held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, have become skippable affairs. PPVs have always meant title fights, which the UFC has done a masterful job over the years of holding to high standards. To see belts change hands, you paid for it. Even if that feels a little heisty in 2025, it served to force a value in its structure and interest, to keep a premium on things. To give title fights away, even at a subscription fee? Perhaps the value scale loses some of its natural escalation. The greatest fear is that things blend together, and the sport plays out on a gray plateau. Will the UFC even be as interested in developing stars without PPVs to sell them on? The savings on the pocketbook can't help but be a welcome thing for fans, ultimately. And who knows exactly how things are going to play out? Lester Bangs declared rock & roll dead in the 1970s, and some 50 years later there's still a pulse. Right after TKO COO and president Mark Shapiro said the 'PPV model was dead,' White wasn't so quick to pull the plug. 'A fight will pop up that I never saw coming,' White told the New York Post. 'A star will pop up out of somewhere. Anything is possible. And you could do a one-off pay-per-view. I am going to be on pay-per-view this Saturday. Pay-per-view is not dead.' But it'll be dead in the sense we knew it. And what that means is a paradigm shift in the sport. Fighters will no longer be linked to PPV points, which has always been a story within the story. Diehard fans who've willingly paid for (or at least went through the trouble of illegally streaming) PPVs will now share the sport with the homogenized sports world at large. Which I guess is the root of things. Homogeny is the scariest thing in combat sports. We didn't miss Dude Wipes until we saw the Reebok fight kits. Then we understood some soul was being sucked out of our rogue sport. The closer to the mainstream the sport drifts, the more it loses some of its lifeblood. It's hard to be nostalgic about being gouged, it's true, but you can't help but be protective of what got us here. Or to remember that at one time there was some good bang for the buck. Back in the mid-aughts, the UFC combined the tuxedo affairs of 1990s boxing with the vibes of an underground temptation. From there it slowly stockpiled its greatest passions behind the paywall. Remember how red Dana's face would turn as he tried to sell the PPV at the end of the televised portion of the card? Remember the names? B.J. Penn. Matt Hughes. Chuck Liddell. Tito Ortiz. Randy Couture. Georges St-Pierre. Quinton Jackson. Jon Jones. Brock Lesnar. Cain Velasquez. Conor McGregor. Ronda Rousey. Go through the posters of the past, and they were the special attractions, the names on the marquee for the numbered events. Those were some good parties we shelled out for. As MMA fans, they were ours. And if that passion is lost, those PPVs will seem like bargains next to the ultimate cost of business.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Major League Baseball announces dates of playoff games, in case Brewers fans are interested
Major League Baseball released its schedule for the upcoming MLB postseason, which should highly interest Milwaukee Brewers fans watching their 74-44 team possessing the best record in baseball midway through August. The schedule follows its traditional custom from past years, with the best-of-three Wild Card series beginning the Tuesday after the regular season ends. In 2025, that means the games will run Sept. 30, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 (Tuesday through Thursday), with the winners advancing to the division series. The Brewers, if their record finishes among the two best in the National League, won't have to worry about that part of the postseason and will advance straight to the NL Division Series, which begins Friday, Oct. 4. That means the Brewers would, as it stands today, have four days off before their first playoff game, hosted at American Family Field. The NLDS series will run Oct. 4-11. The NL Championship Series will run Oct. 13-21, with the World Series from Oct. 24-Nov. 1. The World Series will air on Fox, while the NLCS and NLDS will run on Turner networks like TBS. The wild-card series will air on ESPN networks. Times and opponents, of course, remain up in the air. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Major League Baseball sets dates of playoff games; Brewers fans await
