Khamzat Chimaev was completely dominant in his victory over Dricus du Plessis to become middleweight champion at UFC 319 but he also faced criticism for not taking more risks and instead mostly just relying on his wrestling for takedowns and control time to win the fight.
During the 25 minute fight, Chimaev scored 12 takedowns, racked up over 21 minutes of control time and landed a remarkable 529 strikes. He ultimately won a lopsided decision but Chimaev only threatened a potential finish a couple
of times, particularly when he had du Plessis locked up in the crucifix position as he rained down punches and elbows.
UFC legend Matt Brown, who was front and center for the fights in Chicago, agrees that Chimaev didn’t exactly put on the most thrilling performance but neither did one of the most decorated champions in MMA history who is also widely considered an all-time great.
“It was boring,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “[Georges St-Pierre] had a lot of boring fights. But we don’t really talk about how boring GSP was do we? We talk about how dominant he was. That’s the game that we’re playing. You can’t take anything away from Khamzat for what he did. It’s cool watching him develop.
“I think we see a lot of these wrestlers come into MMA … we see wrestlers think they’re strikers. I think Khamzat went through that phase a little bit with [Gilbert] Burns and [Kamaru] Usman and then he was like ‘wait a minute, I’m the best wrestler here, what am I doing? And got back to it. He got a championship out of it.”
Brown argues that all great champion have endured boring fights but that also speaks to strategy and stylistic matchups.
In Chimaev’s case, he repeatedly took down du Plessis with little resistance and then effectively bullied him around the cage for the better part of 25 minutes. Rather than risk a potential comeback from the now former champion, Chimaev just rag dolled du Plessis and never gave him any room to breathe.
It may not have been the most memorable performance but Brown also recognizes that wrestling and takedowns are part of MMA, which is what Chimaev used so effectively.
“Jon [Jones] had boring fights. GSP had boring fights. [Matt] Hughes had boring fights,” Brown said. “The majority of champions do have boring fights, it’s just part of the game. You can’t expect to just have exciting fights every time and be a longtime champion. It’s not a good strategy for competing, especially when you have the option of taking guys down.
“This isn’t GLORY. This isn’t Lumpinee Stadium. You have the option to take a guy down, control him, put him on his back and not allow him to put you at risk.”
That said, Brown understands the argument that Chimaev played it safe after taking du Plessis down repeatedly but never truly threatening with a finish.
Chimaev did lock down du Plessis in the crucifix on a few occasions where he likely dished out the most punishment but he didn’t get the finish. He also saw an opening for a few submission attempts but Chimaev clearly valued locking du Plessis down on the ground rather than risking the position.
“We can’t fault him for that,” Brown said. “It’s so easy to say when we’re sitting out here. He’s the one feeling things and he’s the one sensing DDP. Look, DDP is a tough son of a b*tch. He’s not a guy you want to be taking a bunch of risks with. I thought Khamzat fought very intelligently. I do feel like, again, watching from the outside, I feel like he could have done more. That’s such armchair quarterbacking. He won basically a 10-8 round probably three or four rounds in a world championship fight. Do you really want to criticize that?
“But at the same time, I do get the criticism because we’re saying he’s that guy. He kind of goes out and just does what he has to, to win, which is what you’re supposed to do. I wouldn’t say an argument but I was kind of explaining that to some of the people around [saying] ‘it’s boring.’ I’m like guys, this is a prize fight and he’s going to win the prize. That’s his object of this fight is to win the prize. Not to make you happy because you want to see blood.”
As far as the future goes, Brown concedes that it’s going to take something special to dethrone Chimaev now that he has the title.
It’s not an impossible task but Chimaev’s wrestling and control on the ground are going to be awfully hard to counter, which is really no different from what St-Pierre did in many of his biggest title defenses.
Add to that, Brown believes that Chimaev is still adding new weapons to his arsenal and that evolution might eventually lead to more exciting finishes like he’s had throughout his UFC career.
“Until someone solves his wrestling puzzle, I’m not sure how you’re going to beat him,” Brown said. “Someone’s going to have to give him a hard time taking them down where he is forced to stand. Then it’s going to be a close fight on the feet because I don’t think Khamzat is going to be an easy guy to beat on the feet either. As boring as this fight was — it was boring, I totally, fully admit that — as boring as it was, watching his progression, his ceiling is absolutely up to the stars.
“It’s very cool to watch him progress. He’s not going to lose that wrestling. I’m sure that’s who he’s always going to be but if at some point he come across a Yoel Romero type and he’s forced to stay on the feet, I think it’s going to be exciting to watch and exciting to see how that plays out.”
