Khamzat Chimaev is here.
On Saturday, Chimaev finally did what so many thought he would do years ago and claimed UFC gold, dominating Dricus du Plessis with one of the most impressive title challenger performances in years. Notice I said “impressive” because plenty of people were quite unhappy with “Borz” after his safety-first approach to the bout but hey, defense wins championships. Chimaev is now the middleweight champion, and looks poised for a potentially great run, so let’s talk about all things
UFC 319.
“Is part of the MMA fanbase overexaggerating by calling Khamzat boring? What would be your response to those calling for a rules change?”
MMA fans are often prone to hyperbole, and in this instance, they most certainly are being ridiculous by calling Chimaev boring. But at the same time, that fight certainly wasn’t a riveting affair, and don’t let any former UFC champions shame you into believing it was.
Like it or not, fight sports are an entertainment business. Yes, winning is the most important thing, but it’s not the only thing. This fight was one of the few this year that broke through to a broader audience than the hardcore MMA fanbase — I had normie friends asking about this one — and the expectation was either we’d see something incredibly violent or a barnburner of a fight, maybe both. Instead we got a dominant performance where the guy who won made zero serious submission attempts and only landed 37 significant strikes. Only a total contrarian is going to try and argue that was a good viewing experience.
So yeah, the fight was a stinker. Impressive? Absolutely. But not a good vibe. But that doesn’t mean Chimaev is a boring fighter, it means he had a boring fight. Every fighter — other than Justin Gaethje — throws out a clunker or two from time to time, and champions tend to do it even more often as defense becomes a priority. But for the rest of Chimaev’s performances, you wouldn’t call the man boring, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt that this is the anomaly, not the new normal.
As for changing the rules, I actually would be supportive of a rule clarification that prompted referees to be more aggressive about standups. For a long time I was against that as I had the very lame hipster take of “there aren’t standups in real fights, derrrrrr” but that’s just silly. Sports are entertainment and in just about all of them there are rules to promote action, ESPECIALLY in wrestling. Go watch some wrestling and you’ll see refs throw warnings incredibly quickly to make sure the pace is high. I would be veyr much in favor of a more robust standup policy coming into.
Not that it would’ve matter here. DDP would’ve just gotten taken down 20 times instead of 12.
“After seeing that dominant crucifixion repetition, who do you see even giving Khamzat a competitive fight, outside of maybe Kamaru, and Gilbert Burns, I feel like the grappling lags so far behind Borz, we could see an Anderson Silva level of Achievement/dominance.”
Heading into UFC 319, I thought Dricus du Plessis was the most difficult matchup for Chimaev at 185 for a lot of reasons, and that is one of my worst takes in a long time. Now, if they rematched, I suspect DDP could do better, but after watching the fight a few times, the difference in athleticism was SHOCKING and that’s not going anywhere. Go watch it back. Yes, Chimaev was lightyears ahead of him in technical wrestling, but even when DDP would actually defend a shot attempt, Chimaev simply teleported onto his hips again because Dricus was moving so slow.
So if you’re going to compete with Khamzat you have to be able to either mitigate his grappling advantage or also be a superior athlete, preferably both. Fortunately for him, not a lot of guys at middleweight fulfill even one of those needs, much less both.
That being said, we’ve seen Chimaev had hard fights before, and do so with smaller men. This happens every time a fighter wins, we want to crown them the GOAT before they actually do the work. This sport is littered with “Oh My God, He’ll Never Lose” guys who then fell off a cliff. It’s what makes it so compelling.
The growing consensus seems to be that of the current contenders, Anthony Hernandez, AKA “Fluffy” has the best chance because he is also a very good grappler and he has the cardio superpower to win in the championship rounds. Frankly, I get the argument but I’m not sure I’m sold, primarily because we don’t see Fluffy on his back that much, and he’s gonna be there against Chimaev.
For me, there are two options — three if Caio Borralho nukes Nassourdine Imavov, then I’ll legit be very intrigued by that matchup — and only one of them that I actually feel good about. The first is Reiner de Ridder, who would probably get blown up in 9 out of 10 Khamzat fights because like DDP, he’s not a great athlete. But in that 10th fight, RDR’s clinch work and knees to the body could make life tough on Chimaev standing, and he’s a much better defensive grappler than DDP. He’s also enormous, which counts for something.
The one I actually think I’d pick though is unlikely to ever happen: Alex Pereira. People have this idea that Alex Pereira can’t wrestle or grappler because “Izzy took him down!” but yeah, that’s how that works. When you aren’t expecting your kickboxing opponent to go for a takedown, it lands. Pereira has been quite good at defending takedowns in recent years, he’s gigantic for 185, and he chews Chimaev up on the feet. If “Poatan” returned to 185, I think I’d pick him to win.
“What have we learned from Aaron Pico, Patchy Mix, and Patricio Pitbull all losing their UFC debuts? Is it that the UFC competition is levels above other organizations? Is it jitters from premiering under the bright lights on MMA’s biggest stage?“
It’s neither of those things. It’s that MMA is a hard damn sport, and the margins are tiny.
After Pico got bolted by Lerone Murphy in the co-main event, I certainly saw some chatter about the UFC jitters, but I simply don’t buy that. Pico has fought in front of major crowds before, and he was basically groomed from birth to be here. The bright lights didn’t get to him, Lerone Murphy did. And Murphy is a great featherweight. The only thing I take from that fight is Murphy is good and Pico still hasn’t beaten an objectively good fighter in his career.
As for Patchy and Pitbull, Pitbull is several years past his prime and fought a Top 10 dude. That happens. And Patchy? Well, I don’t have answers on that one. He looked like trash, but that could be the fact that he’d been out for a long time and took a hard fight on shortish notice.
Also, the idea that competition is levels above doesn’t really hold water. Yes, most of the best fighters in the world are in the UFC, but there are still great fighters elsewhere. People said this about Pride and Strikeforce and WEC way back in the day, and in each instance those fighters came over and won titles. Hell, Kayla Harrison came over and she won the belt this year!
All these losses tell me is that Aaron Pico has some fundamental flaws in his game (chin isn’t good enough for the style he fights), Pitbull is old, and Patchy might be the next Will Brooks.
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer all the good ones! It doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.
