Khamzat Chimaev captured the middleweight crown by dominating Dricus du Plessis atop the UFC 319 pay-per-view (PPV) fight card last weekend in Chicago, a five-round blowout that saw “Borz” land 529 total strikes, a new single-fight UFC record. But it seemed bloodthirsty fight fans were underwhelmed by Chimaev’s wrestle-heavy offense, which drew mixed reviews from the combat sports community.
“Anyone that says it’s a boring fight is a casual,” former UFC middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, said
on his MMArcade podcast. “If you’re a fan of the sport and you’re not fascinated by Chimaev’s ability to control someone as dogged as Dricus, who’s gotten out of things time and time again, who physically never gasses, super strong, has cardio for days, if you’re not fascinated by such one-sided domination, then you have to be a casual. You never see this level at a championship fight, this level of control. We just saw someone get crucifixed for 15 minutes. How can you be a fan of the sport and not think, ‘wow, that’s crazy?‘”
So much for all those cardio issues.
“If you guys don’t wanna watch grappling and wrestling and jiu-jitsu, don’t watch UFC,” former UFC flyweight champion, Demetrious Johnson, said on his streaming channel. “You guys are complaining about something that is a very simple problem to fix. For example, let’s say Khamzat is about to fight again, and you don’t want to watch his style. All you have to do is like this: You see this button right here? It’s called the ‘off button.’ You don’t have to see Khamzat wrestle. It’s a very simple problem to fix. You guys are making it a bigger deal than it is.”
If you don’t want Chimaev then you might miss this upcoming PPV card.
No word yet on when or where Chimaev will make his first title defense but the newly-minted middleweight champion already has a queue of hungry contenders waiting for their chance to pull the sword from the proverbial stone. Hopefully “Borz” has moved past his lingering illnesses and can make good on the opportunity to compete again before the end of the year.
For more UFC 319 results and highlights click here.
