Overview

• Khamzat Chimaev has hired Sam Calavitta, TJ Dillashaw’s longtime conditioning coach, to shore up his endurance for the middleweight title fight.
• Dricus Du Plessis has dismissed the novelty of Chimaev’s conditioning upgrade, citing his own lifelong training and two successful defenses of the belt.
• Chimaev’s camp has been bolstered by training partners Ilir Latifi and Arman Tsarukyan as they fine-tune wrestling and sparring drills ahead of fight week.
• Pundits such as Firas Zahabi and Belal Muhammad stress that Chimaev needs an early finish to counter Du Plessis’s superior late-round pace.
• Caio Borralho remains the UFC’s official backup for the August 16 middleweight title bout at the United Center.