Lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan
was in Khamzat Chimaev’s corner at UFC 319, guiding his friend and training partner to a middleweight title victory. It was sheer domination, but not exactly the most exciting fight. Now we’re learning that not only was Tsarukyan happy with the careful, conservative way Chimaev won, he was one of the people refusing to let “Borz” take any risks during the bout.In a new YouTube video from Adam Zubayraev, “Ahalkalakets” opened up on the gameplan coming into their
fight with Dricus du Plessis. It was exactly what we witnessed: wrestle DDP down, control him, and keep it safe.
“The plan for the fight was to wrestle, try not to get into exchanges,” Tsarukyan said. “I told Khamzat right before the fight: ‘You’re better everywhere than him. The only way you can lose is if you brawl with him and let your emotions take over. If you take a hit, don’t force things, don’t try to jump into a slugfest with him. Just outplay him technically.'”
“‘You out-wrestle him 100 times, you outbox him. And if you take him down, if you control him? Then control him. Don’t rush, don’t try to go for a submission right away and lose position. It’s better to calmly win rounds than go for a submission, miss it, lose position, and have to take him down again.'”
“That’s why he fought calmly and worked,” Tsarukyan continued. “We kept calming him down so he wouldn’t force things. Just a controlled strike. Why? Our goal was to win the title. We achieved it. If we had let him go chasing a knockout, a finish, he might have made a mistake somewhere and lost the fight. So it’s a risk, right? Why risk it if everything’s working?”
Tsarukyan even revealed that he refused Chimaev’s request to fight on the feet after going 3-0 in the first few rounds.
“After the third round he tells me, ‘Can I box a little now?'” Arman recalled. “‘No, Khamzat. Everything’s working for you already. If you see a chance to take him down, take him down and control. No need to invent anything. If you win three rounds at this pace, why change anything? Why make things up?'”
The gameplan worked: Chimaev beat du Plessis 50-44 on all three scorecards — but it was not the kind of performance that turned “Borz” into a star with the promotion. Is this what we’re going to expect out of Chimaev moving forward? As safe of a performance as possible to guarantee wins? Khamzat has never listened to his coaches’ demands like this before, something that was noted during the interview.
“He stood up all sulky, like, ‘Ah, we gotta wrestle again,'” Tsarukyan said with a laugh. “He went into the next round all sulky.”
