Dricus Du Plessis leaves no doubt after Sean Strickland rematch
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an hour ago
- Yahoo
If he was the boogeyman as a challenger, Khamzat Chimaev is set to be a tyrant as a champion
It's a tricky business, the fight game, especially when lofty expectations are at the core of it. Everybody knew Dricus du Plessis wanted all the smoke at UFC 319 on Saturday night. He stared down Khamzat Chimaev with an unshakable demeanor, the unsung middleweight champion in Chicago to stop the tyrant of the class from a hostile takeover. When Chimaev returned that gaze with a wicked smile — flashing unnatural bemusement that only grew darker the moment his devilish eyebrow popped up to signal his bad intent — there was a perfect moment in the fight game. That fleeting moment right before a big fight when anticipation has been brought to the point of bursting, and all that's left to do is find out. God, it was good. Goosebumps! Then they moved toward each other and off we went. Or, more accurately, down DDP went. Chimaev wasted little time in torpedoing in toward du Plessis' legs and dumping him onto the canvas. Soon Chimaev locked an arm down with his knee and the South African sacrifice ended up in a crucifix position. Down came a series of low-impact fists to his ear, as if Chimaev were tenderizing a steak. DDP was forced to try to buck for dear life, to attempt kip-ups with a demon of the industry on his chest, yet it was futile. And maaaan, how quickly futility became the theme. Whatever drama fed into UFC 319, which did a record gate at the United Center — just over $11 million — changed to something like awe pretty quickly. Awe that DDP, who'd derailed Robert Whittaker, taken out Israel Adesanya and batted back Sean Strickland on two separate occasions, had nothing for Chimaev. Nothing. He was being tackled, dumped and splattered across the canvas with such ease that half the attention being paid swung toward his incompetence. The other half marveled at the rampant terror of Chimaev, who came exactly as advertised — a Chechen wellspring of violent impulses. For those of us who assumed Khamzat would fatigue in the second round, we found out we were duping ourselves. If we thought DDP surviving into the third would mean it was his fight, imagine the surprise at tuning in for a 25-minute torture film. And if we thought the fight hitting the championship rounds would look like an act of brilliant defiance, well, maybe it was. DDP was still there, trying to escape Khamzat's custody. Admirable stuff from a human spirit standpoint. Yet Khamzat let the will bleed out. He wasn't playing with his food, as a cat might, but it had something in common with the cruelty. In fact, there was something like joy in the onslaught. Fluffy Hernandez, who won his fight with Roman Dolidze last week and was seated cageside, might've been wondering if he could whittle his frame down to 170. Caio Borralho, the Fighting Nerd who fights next month in Paris against Nassourdine Imavov in what's expected to be a title eliminator, had to have been doing some hard math in his head a few seats down. Twelve takedowns + nearly 22 minutes of control time = total misery. How's that for incentive for an upcoming main event? The winner gets Khamzat! It can be said the world's toughest lamb will still struggle against the slaughterhouse, but, well, that's all for tomorrow … That's. All. For. Tomorrow. For Saturday night it was an arrival of a tyrant who's inviting anybody to stop him. Chimaev is daring the middleweight field to try their damndest to thwart his takedowns. He is telling all comers to prepare their silver linings, just as DDP had to. Did du Plessis have heart? Hell yes, he did. Did he have courage? No question. Did he have confidence in himself, that he could keep the fight in his world? That he could debunk the existence of a boogeyman for the world to see? Of course. Yet seeing fighters divested of their delusions is what UFC pay-per-views are all about. Against Chimaev you can't bring heart and courage as your intangibles. If you can't stop the takedown, it's going to be a hard night. Simple as that. Those who were disappointed in Saturday night's main event were upset that the drama couldn't hold up. In a dominant striking performance, somebody gets knocked out. In a dominant grappling fight, somebody usually taps. There's an abrupt end to whomever is being outclassed. In a hellacious wrestling display, like we witnessed at UFC 319, there's a sustained sense of helplessness. Of watching a man sink in quicksand over the course of 25 minutes, a visual that's not for everyone. DDP was smiling at the end of the first round, as he and his corner were keeping things as light as they could. He'd experienced what it's like to stand in there with Khamzat. And there was a realization in that smile, too, like he was coming to understand what was already apparent for most of us who were watching. As much as we wanted it to be the case, a competitive fight was not in the cards.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Khamzat Chimaev's dominance by the numbers: How UFC 319 main event stats tell the story of new champ's success
Khamzat Chimaev took the UFC middleweight title from Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 with a performance so effortlessly dominant that simply calling it a victory via unanimous decision doesn't quite say it. Even looking at the judges' scorecards fails to capture how lopsided the fight was. All three judges had it 50-44 in favor of the new champ Chimaev, but all three also awarded him a 10-8 score only in the third round, when he could have arguably notched that score in almost any round of the fight. To really see what was going on in this fight, you might need to look at some of the other numbers to come out of the UFC 319 main event. 131-3: That's the strike tally for both fighters at the end of the first round. Chimaev landed 131 of the 137 strikes he threw in the opening frame, for an eye-opening 95.6% accuracy rate. Du Plessis landed exactly three. Then again, he is credited with having attempted only three, so at least he connected with 100% of them. But what's also telling is the significant strike totals from that round. Of Chimaev's 137 strikes attempts, only two were classified as significant strike attempts according to the official stats. That's because most of the round saw Chimaev on top, flattening du Plessis out in a crucifix position while peppering his head with short punches that seemed more aggravating than damaging. Du Plessis was credited with zero significant strike attempts in the opening round. 21:40: That's Chimaev's total control time in the fight. At the risk of tremendous understatement, that's an uncommon figure in a 25-minute fight. Du Plessis is listed as having been in control for a total of just 53 seconds, and all of that came in the final round. Du Plessis is not credited with a single second of control time throughout the first four rounds of the fight. Of course, Chimaev's control time dropped significantly in that final frame. He controlled well over four of the five minutes in every round except the fifth. 12: That's the total number of takedowns logged by Chimaev on 17 total attempts. What's really telling is that DDP didn't successfully stop a single takedown until Round 4. In that third frame, the one the judges all had as the lone 10-8 round, Chimaev went 3-for-3 on takedowns. By the fifth — by far DDP's best round by every metric — that figure had dropped to 3 for 6. 567: That's the total number of strikes Chimaev threw in the fight, giving him an average of 113.4 strikes per round. But of those, just 8.2% were listed as significant strike attempts. This might help explain some of the blowback Chimaev has received from fans and fellow fighters in the wake of such a dominant victory. While all the numbers show that he steamrolled du Plessis in every facet of the fight, he never seemed to go all out in search of a finish. 1: That's the number of submission attempts in the fight, at least according to the statisticians. And it's not Chimaev who was given credit for attempting that submission, even though he did briefly threaten with a choke at one point. Instead it's du Plessis who logged it with his rear-naked choke attempt in the final minute of the fight. Chimaev fought it off, but here again is another indicator of why some might view Chimaev as insufficiently interested in finishing the fight. He controlled the majority of every round, outstruck du Plessis 529-45, but never committed to a submission attempt (at least in the eyes of the record-keepers.) 1: That's the total number of leg kicks landed by du Plessis. By contrast, he landed 52 leg kicks in his last fight against Sean Strickland. The fight before that, against Israel Adesanya, he landed 22 of 29 leg kick attempts. His previous low in the UFC was eight leg kicks against Derek Brunson, a fighter he knocked out in two rounds. Here, he didn't even attempt a leg kick until the final round. That's a pretty good indicator of how Chimaev's wrestling-heavy game forced DDP to change his usual approach — and without success.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
UFC 319 Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay: Aaron Pico nets $4,000 in debut
CHICAGO – Fighters from Saturday's UFC 319 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $301,500. The program, a comprehensive plan that includes outfitting requirements, media obligations and other items under the fighter code of conduct, replaces the previous payments made under the UFC Athlete Outfitting Policy. UFC 319 took place at United Center. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+. The full UFC 319 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included: Khamzat Chimaev: $32,000 def. Dricus Du Plessis: $42,000 Lerone Murphy: $6,000 def. Aaron Pico: $4,000 Carlos Prates: $6,000 def. Geoff Neal: $11,000 Michael Page: $4,500 def. Jared Cannonier: $16,000 Tim Elliott: $21,000 def. Kai Asakura: $4,000 Baisangur Susurkaev: $4,000 def. Eric Nolan: $4,000 Michal Oleksiejczuk: $16,000 def. Gerald Meerschaert: $21,000 Loopy Godinez: $11,000 def. Jessica Andrade: $21,000 Alexander Hernandez: $16,000 def. Chase Hooper: $11,000 Drakkar Klose: $11,000 def. Edson Barboza: $21,000 Karine Silva: $6,000 def. Dione Barbosa: $4,500 Joseph Morales: $4,500 def. Alibi Idiris: $4,000 Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program's payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Venum's multi-year sponsorship with the UFC, fighters are paid based on their total number of UFC bouts, as well as Zuffa-era WEC fights (January 2007 and later) and Zuffa-era Strikeforce bouts (April 2011 and later). Fighters with 1-3 bouts receive $4,000 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,500; 6-10 bouts get $6,000; 11-15 bouts earn $11,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $16,000; and 21 bouts and more get $21,000. Additionally, champions earn $42,000 while title challengers get $32,000. In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-30 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials. Full 2025 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts: "UFC 319: Du Plessis vs. Chimaev" – $301,500 "UFC on ESPN 72: Dolidze vs. Hernandez" – $205,000 "UFC on ESPN 71: Taira vs. Park" – $150,000 "UFC on ABC 9: Whittaker vs. de Ridder" – $191,000 "UFC 318: Holloway vs. Poirier 3" – $269,500 "UFC on ESPN 70: Lewis vs. Teixeira" – $204,500 "UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira" – $298,500 "UFC on ABC 8: Hill vs. Rountree Jr." – $155,000 "UFC on ESPN 69: Usman vs. Buckley" – $260,500 "UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs. O'Malley 2" – $320,500 "UFC on ESPN 68: Blanchfield vs. Barber" – $121,500 "UFC on ESPN 67: Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo" – $203,000 "UFC on ESPN 66: Machado Garry vs. Prates" – $201,500 "UFC 314: Volkanovski vs. Lopes" – $300,500 "UFC on ESPN 65: Emmett vs. Murphy" – $161,000 "UFC on ESPN 64: Moreno vs. Erceg" – $168,500 "UFC Fight Night 255: Edwards vs. Brady" – $204,000 "UFC Fight Night 254: Vettori vs. Dolidze 2" – $173,000 "UFC 313: Pereira vs. Ankalaev" – $213,500 "UFC Fight Night 253: Kape vs. Almabayev" – $134,500 "UFC Fight Night 252: Cejudo vs. Song" – $185,000 "UFC Fight Night 251: Cannonier vs. Rodrigues" – $168,000 "UFC 312: Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2" – $254,500 "UFC Fight Night 250: Adesanya vs. Imavov" – $137,500 "UFC 311: Makhachev vs. Moicano" – $306,000 "UFC Fight Night 249: Dern vs. Ribas 2" – $173,500 Year-to-date total: $4,813,500 2024 total: $8,280,500 2023 total: $8,188,000 2022 total: $8,351,500 2021 total: $6,167,500 Program-to-date total: $35,830,500 This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 319 Promotional Guidelines Compliance: Aaron Pico debuts at $4,000
