2 days ago
Dricus du Plessis loses UFC middleweight belt to powerful Khamzat Chimaev
Dricus du Plessis was thoroughly outwrestled by Khamzat Chimaev, who is the new UFC middleweight champion after victory in Chicago.
South African mixed martial artist Dricus du Plessis lost his middleweight world title to the powerful Chechnya-born Russian Khamzat Chimaev in Chicago at UFC 319.
Chimaev dethroned Du Plessis in the early hours of Sunday.
Much of the prefight talk was about whether Du Plessis would be able to match Chimaev's wrestling for long enough to assert his own striking style. That was answered with a definitive no after Chimaev spent more than 90% of the five-round, 25-minute bout on top of Du Plessis.
It's Du Plessis's first loss in the UFC, taking his overall MMA record to 23-3 and his record in the organisation to 9-1. Chimaev remains undefeated with a 15-0 overall record and 9-0 in the UFC.
The judges scored it 50-44, 50-44, 50-44 for Chimaev. Such was his domination from the first bell to the last that when the final one chimed, there was no doubt in either fighter that Bruce Buffer would announce 'and new' while holding Chimaev's arm aloft.
'Happy, happy always,'' Chimaev, a man of few words, said about how he felt after the fight.
Du Plessis wasn't beaten up so much as he was just held down in uncomfortable positions and unable to get out of them. In every round he was put in a crucifix, with his arms spread, by Chimaev, sprawled across the octagon floor and his face exposed to punches from above. The punches weren't significant in any way, but they did add up with the new middleweight champion nailing an incredible 510 total strikes to Du Plessis's 56.
'The man has incredible control on the top,'' Du Plessis said after the fight. 'He's just like a blanket. I mean, it wasn't a matter of strength. He wasn't that physical. It's almost as if he knew what your next move was going to be.'
The South African did have a glimmer of a chance of victory in the final round when he gained a short ascendancy with an attempted rear naked chokehold, but it slipped off quickly.
'At the end, I went for it, [I] had the back,'' Du Plessis said. 'I could almost taste that victory. But big ups to (Chimaev), he beat me fair and square tonight. He was the better man.''
Blow by blow
Despite the prefight talks about matching the grappling and wrestling, the entire first round was purely about survival for Du Plessis after being taken down within the first 14 seconds of the start of the fight.
Chimaev was in total control, dictating the fight at his pace. There was no significant damage done in that time but the South African was visibly more fatigued from trying to fight off Chimaev.
The second round played out almost identically to the first, with little resistance from Du Plessis in blocking or successfully defending Chimaev's takedowns.
In total, Chimaev attempted 17 takedowns and landed 12. One minute into the third round, Chimaev had already taken down Du Plessis six times.
And at that stage, with Du Plessis slightly more exposed – through trying to fight more after losing the first two rounds – he took more damage to his face.
With the fourth going pretty much like the three previous rounds, the referee stepped in. While Chimaev did have control, holding down Du Plessis – for a total of 21 minutes 40 seconds of the 25-minute fight – the referee felt that there was not enough activity from either fighter and made them stand up with about one minute left in the fourth round.
But it went back to the status quo, with Du Plessis getting rag-dolled more easily as he tired.
The referee separated them again with about 90 seconds left in the final round of the fight and Du Plessis landed a few solid strikes to Chimaev, enough to make him stagger backwards, knowing that he needed a finish to win the fight.
But Chimaev took him down again, although this time Du Plessis rolled out of it and was close to securing a choke of his own but was held out by the powerful grappling ability of Chimaev.
Du Plessis finished on top for the last 15 seconds of the fight, but he was unable to submit or knock out Chimaev from his position and the fight was lost at that point. DM
