CHICAGO — Khamzat Chimaev may not have made many new fans with his dominant win over Dricus du Plessis in the main event of UFC 319 on Saturday, but the top title challenger is taking home the UFC middleweight championship after winning a lopsided decision with a smothering grappling performance.
As expected, Chimaev shot for a takedown immediately and was nearly caught in a du Plessis choke but rolled through to end up on top in side control. Chimaev quickly trapped du Plessis’ arm between his legs and pounded away from the crucifix position. The punches were short and did not have Chimaev’s full power behind them, but he had effectively rendered du Plessis defenseless and with nothing to do but look for a way to muscle out of the position.
Slightly more than halfway through the opening round, du Plessis did manage to free his arm, though he hadn’t solved the problem of being stuck under Chimaev’s smothering top game. Du Plessis nearly managed to find his way back to his feet in the final stages of the round, but the horn sounded with him still on bottom.
With the first round having gone about as poorly as possible for du Plessis outside of a stoppage, he entered the second round clearly in need of a change. Instead, Chimaev was immediately on the attack once again, putting du Plessis to one knee along the cage.
Du Plessis continued trying to step back up to his feet, but Chimaev held on, dragging him back down and landing knees and fishing to see if there were possible rear-naked choke attempts as the boos from the Chicago crowd grew louder.
The strategy had worked spectacularly for Chimaev in the first two rounds, so he returned to the plan for the third, this time finishing a takedown to return to the side control position where he’d dominated the opening frame. And, just as he’d done in the first round, Chimaev trapped one of du Plessis’ arms in a crucifix position. Chimaev began to mix elbows into his attack with this crucifix, putting more damage into play and increasing the potential of a stoppage, but du Plessis was again able to free his arm and ride out the remaining seconds of the round.
Every round is a fresh opportunity, but it was Chamaev who took advantage of the situation. Another round meant another opportunity for a takedown, to force du Plessis to defend his back, to trap his arm in a crucifix.
Referee Marc Goddard introduced a new wrinkle in the fourth round, standing the fighters due to a lack of any real attack from Chimaev. Chimaev’s response was simply to secure yet another takedown, where the fight would remain until the round’s end.
Du Plessis had a moment of momentum to start the final round, landing a few strikes and forcing Chimaev to look uncomfortable for the first time in the fight. Cue the inevitable Chimaev takedown.
Du Plessis managed to escape the bottom with half of the round remaining, and even ended up in top position, but an attempt to pull a guillotine choke backfired and Chimaev was right back on top.
There would be one more dramatic moment, with the fight restarted with roughly one minute remaining. Du Plessis would again end up on top and this time even took the back after landing some hard strikes, but Chimaev avoided the Hail Mary rear-naked choke and the final seconds ticked out of the fight — and du Pless’ title reign.
Here are a few numbers to contextualize Chimaev’s dominance on Saturday.
- Chimaev scored 12 takedowns in 17 attempts, leading to a total of 21:40 of ground control time. That means nearly 88% of the fight was spent with Chimaev in control on the ground.
- Chimaev landed 37 significant strikes compared to 13 for du Plessis. But if you remove the “significant” qualifier and go with simply strikes, Chimaev outlanded du Plessis 529 to 45.
Du Plessis entered Saturday’s fight on a run of four consecutive victories over men who were then or had previously been middleweight champion. He left on the United Center having been held on the ground for nearly 22 minutes and outlanded by just shy of 500 strikes.
Chimaev is now 15-0 as a professional and holds the UFC middleweight championship. The fashion in which he dominated du Plessis suddenly makes Chimaev’s wild plan of becoming a three-division champion, capturing gold at welterweight and light heavyweight, seem not so far-fetched.
CBS Sports was with you the entire way on Saturday, bringing you all the results and highlights from UFC 319 below.
UFC 319 fight card, odds
- Khamzat Chimaev def. Dricus du Plessis (c) via unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-44)
- Lerone Murphy def. Aaron Pico via first-round knockout (elbow)
- Carlos Prates def. Geoff Neal via first-round knockout (elbow)
- Michael Page def. Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Tim Elliott def. Kai Asakura via second-round submission (guillotine choke)
- Baisangur Susurkaev def. Eric Nolan via second-round submission (rear-naked choke)
- Michal Oleksiejczuk def. Gerald Meerschaert via first-round TKO (punches)
- Loopy Godinez def. Jessica Andrade via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Alexander Hernandez def. Chase Hooper via first-round knockout (punches)
- Drakkar Klose def. Edson Barboza via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-29)
- Karine Silva def. Dione Barbosa via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Joseph Morales def. Alibi Idiris via second-round submission (triangle choke)
