Dricus du Plessis Mocks Khamzat Chimaev After UFC 319 Headliner Gets Backup Fighter

😂Dricus Du Plessis reacted on Instagram to the news that Nassourdine Imavov will be the backup fighter for #UFC319

"Guess I’m fighting Nassourdine Imavov."▫️ pic.twitter.com/w85WgKRWqD

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) May 14, 2025

Dricus Du Plessis took a dig at Khamzat Chimaev’s history of pulling out after a backup was announced for their upcoming matchup.

Du Plessis (23-2) is scheduled to defend his middleweight title against Chimaev (14-0) in the UFC 319 main event on Aug. 16 at United Center in Chicago. Nassourdine Imavov was recently announced as the back-up fighter for the middleweight title clash, which means the French striker has to make weight for an opportunity to step in if either du Plessis or Chimaev pulls out.

Reacting to the announcement, du Plessis said he’s fighting Imavov, reminding Chimaev of his history of pulling out.

“Guess I’m fighting [Imavov,]” du Plessis wrote on his Instagram Stories.

While Chimaev has had a lot of cancelled fights in the UFC, he wasn’t responsible for all of them. His first cancellation against Leon Edwards was due to both testing positive for Covid-19. Similarly, his opponent Paulo Costa pulled out of their matchup in 2023 due to a staph infection.

Although there are other such examples, Chimaev has also pulled out of matchups on his own accord on multiple occasions. “Borz” backed out of two bookings against Edwards due to his lingering coronavirus recovery. He also missed weight by a whopping 7.5 pounds for a booking against Nate Diaz, leading to the reshuffling of the entire UFC 279 main card in 2022. He most recently pulled out of a booking against Robert Whittaker in June 2024 due to unexplained illness.

However, Chimaev fought Whittaker at UFC 308 later that year and looked better than ever, stopping “Bobby Knuckles” with a jaw-breaking face crank in the opening stanza. A lot of Chimaev’s backouts were driven by health issues, rumoured to be a result of overtraining. Chimaev changed camps before the Whittaker fight and claims to be at his best health now.