Demetrious Johnson has a simple solution for those who didn’t enjoy Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC 319 title win.
Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) dominated Dricus Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) on the ground en route to a unanimous decision win in Saturday’s main event at United Center in Chicago. Chimaev had over 21 minutes of control time on Du Plessis, and was showered with boos from the fans several times throughout the fight.
Johnson expects better from the fans.
“If you guys don’t want to watch grappling and wrestling and jiu-jitsu, don’t watch UFC,” Johnson said on his YouTube channel. “Go watch ONE Championship, go watch Lion Fighting, go watch Glory, go watch kickboxing, go watch muay Thai, right? It’s very simple. You guys are complaining about something that’s a very simple problem to fix.
“For example, let’s say Khamzat’s about to fight again, you don’t want to watch his style, all you’ve got to do is go like this, you see this button right here? It’s called ‘off’OFF’ button. You don’t have to see Khamzat wrestle. It’s a very simple problem to fix. You guys are making it a bigger deal than it is.”
Chimaev has various options for his first title defense from Reinier de Ridder, to Anthony Hernandez, to the winner of the Sept. 6 headliner between Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho. Whoever is next, Johnson says they’re in for a long night if they can’t handle Chimaev’s grappling prowess.
“I honestly thought Khamzat was going to be able to finish DDP if he was able to take DDP down, but I also thought DDP was going to do a better job about defending the takedown and he wasn’t able to stop the takedown,” Johnson said. “That was the story of that fight. So moving forward, whoever fights Khamzat, they need to decide.
“Like, (Nassourdine) Imavov or (Caio) Borralho – they fight Sept. 6. Whoever wins that fight, if they do not come with a wrestling defense or a good jiu-jitsu attacking style like going after the legs, elevating Khamzat, they’re going to lose. I feel totally comfortable saying that. They’re going to lose – because Khamzat does not want to stand. He wants to show, show, shoot … show, show, shoot … show, show, shoot. So if those guys don’t have a ground game or have an answer for his wrestling, it’s going to be the same exact thing that happened to DDP.”
