Cliff notes:
- About Khamzat vs Usman, gives massive props to Usman for being a true Welterweight and giving Khamzat a really good fight. Says, it showed the caliber of champion Usman is. Before the fight, he thought no way Usman makes it to round 3 and would most likely be finished in round 1. Believes round 2 and 3 showed Usman picking up momentum. Believes Usman would have finished Khamzat in round 4 had the fight been 5 rounds. Would have won a 5 round fight against Khamzat.
- Seems very unimpressed by Khamzat as Usman is a lot smaller and not as strong as Khamzat. Very impressed with Usman given he fought on only 10 day notice, unprepared, with a big size and weight disadvantage across the world. Sill Khamzat struggled with Usman.
- Does not believe Khamzat is as big as people make him out to be. He is tall, but not big as Dricus has seen him in real life. He outsized Usman by a good amount, but Costa would have been a completely different story.
- DDP believes Costa would have 'smoked' Khamzat. Costa is too big and too strong for Khamzat. Costa is a pressure fighter who constantly comes forward and never lets off the pressure. Once he gets ahead of you, it is very hard to reverse the tide. Khamzat simply could not have used his brute force strategy (expends a lot of energy to take his opponents down) against Costa. Costa has a distinct size, weight and strength advantage over Khamzat.
- Is not scared of being taken down by Khamzat in round 1. Believes it will happen, very likely, but he knows Khamzat cannot deal with his pressure and pace.
- Is not too worried about the title shot. He wants to just keep beating people until they can no longer deny him a title shot. If Khamzat wants to fight Strickland, he seems fine with it. Says, he can fight someone else and will beat that opponent.
- Believes Khamzat will not fight for a long time (possibly due to his hand injury or just taking a break). He is ready to go. Believes, the title shot might come his way. That is his gut feeling that he will be the next one against Strickland.
- Hypocrisy in the game where Dana White wants Khamzat to take a break if his hand is indeed injured, but by the same token, he was not afforded the same luxury when he injured his foot in the Whittaker fight where he needed surgery. Dana White told him backstage before the post fight press conference that he could take a break and let his foot heal, but then asked DDP to fight on 8 weeks notice in Australia against Adesanya. He got punished for it.
- If Khamzat cannot be ready to fight in the next 10 weeks, it puts DDP in a very good position for the next title fight.
- Seems to have a lot of negative things to say about Helwani. Called him 'Douchebag' where Ariel tried to race bait him. His second interview went better with Ariel, but says everyone needs to watch out for Ariel (I never saw the interview so I am not sure what exactly did Ariel do).
- No one betting on him in the Whittaker fight is nothing personal for him. He said he would have bet against himself. There were 30 MMA pro fighters asked and 30 of them said Whittaker would win so he has no hard feelings about everyone underestimating him.
- Has a lot of respect for Whittaker and seems to think the Whittaker fight easily shows he could beat Adesanya.
- Does not see Strickland as a well rounded fighter. He won the fight because Adesanya is not good fighting on his back foot. Adesanya never had any takedown game as Strickland was right there for the takedown, but since Adesanya does not know how to do a double-leg, Strickland was able to stand right in front of him and keep Adesanya on his back foot.
- Strickland might have a decent ground game, he is too easy to take down. Abus fight was a good example. he took Strickland down at will in round 1. He simply gassed out in 2nd round. Abus was having a field day until he ran out of gas.
- Believes he will be able to mix it up well against Strickland as Strickland does not do well when there is takedown threat. Has a strong gut feeling it will be him vs Strickland next in 10 week's time.
- Believes Adesanya damaged his brand with the race baiting after the Whittaker fight. It backfired on Adesanya big time. Adesanya was rattled and it was completely out of character considering he is always controlling the narrative before everyone of his fight with themes ('Anime') etc. This time DDP felt he won because of how rattled Adesanya was during their confrontation. It played a factor in him losing support in Australia and also possibly in his head for the Strickland fight. People in South Africa did not take the bait at all and they all were united regardless of race, color, ethnicity etc. in saying 'Dricus is our guy' considering South Africa is the only country he has known with the only passport he has.
- He was winning all of his fights with 8% Oxygen through his nose. Whittaker fight was the first post-surgery fight where he was breathing through both his nostrils. He is a fast-paced pressure fighter who never lets off the gas. That is the only way he knows how to fight. With full breathing through his nose, he has shown he can keep the pressure and pace on for the whole fight. You have to keep up with in his pressure and pace otherwise, you are going to lose.
- Seems like a chill guy. Offered to meet and train with MMA Guru during his trip to South Africa. That is very humble of him to offer to train with him, do a podcast and hang out with a youtuber.
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