Chimaev Dominates Du Plessis for UFC Title
Khamzat Chimaev won the UFC Middleweight Title at UFC 319 with a complete shutout of Dricus Du Plessis. The performance is being hailed by fighters like Conor McGregor and Paulo Costa as potentially the most dominant in the promotion's history.
The victory for Khamzat Chimaev was a statistical masterpiece of dominance. All three judges scored the bout 50-44, reflecting a near-total shutdown of the defending champion, Dricus Du Plessis. Chimaev's wrestling was the deciding factor, as he landed a takedown within the first 10 seconds of the fight and succeeded on nearly every subsequent attempt. This title win was the culmination of a journey that began with Chimaev's explosive UFC debut in 2020. Despite his ascent being slowed by illness and other issues, the Chechen-born fighter remained undefeated. For Du Plessis, this marked a tough end to his reign, which had included two successful title defenses. The sheer one-sidedness of the fight is reflected in the numbers: Chimaev amassed an incredible 21 minutes and 40 seconds of ground control time in a 25-minute fight. To put that into perspective, Du Plessis had only been on the bottom for a total of five minutes in his entire UFC career prior to this bout. The strike count was just as lopsided, with Chimaev out-landing the champion 529 to 45. Even during the bout, Chimaev's confidence was on full display. In the second round, while controlling Du Plessis on the ground, he was reportedly speaking to both the champion and his corner. The performance drew immediate and strong reactions from the MMA community. Fellow fighters like Henry Cejudo predicted a long championship reign for Chimaev, with Michael Bisping simply tweeting "Wow total domination." The dominant, grappling-heavy style did, however, draw some boos from the live crowd, a point noted by former UFC fighter Matt Brown who compared it to the dominant but sometimes less-than-thrilling wins of Georges St-Pierre. Heading into the championship rounds, a major question mark for Chimaev was his cardio, which had been a concern in previous three-round fights. He answered those questions emphatically, maintaining a relentless pace for all five rounds and silencing critics of his gas tank. In his post-fight comments, Chimaev directly addressed these doubts, stating, "I did not gas out, and now they know."
