UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev is undefeated in mixed martial arts (MMA) with 12 of his 15 victories coming by way of knockout or submission. In addition, big-star “Borz” used his wrestling and jiu jitsu to completely dominate Dricus du Plessis atop the UFC 319 pay-per-view (PPV) event last summer in Chicago.
But against elite grapplers in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) tournament, Chimaev — and former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov — would get beat “pretty easily.”
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“They’re not the best wrestlers. They’re not the best freestyle wrestlers in the world. And they’re not the best jiu-jitsu guys in the world,” ADCC champ, Gordon Ryan told Overdogs. “If you put those guys into ADCC, they would get beat pretty easily. But what they’re doing is submission grappling. They’re not supposed to be the best wrestlers. They’re not supposed to be the best jiu-jitsu guys. They’re supposed to be the best MMA fighters.”
Like Chimaev, the retired Nurmagomedov remained undefeated* inside the Octagon.
“They have the ability to make them carry body weight, keep them on the floor, hit them on the way up, and then do significant damage with punches or submit them from top position,” Ryan added. “So, that kind of jiu-jitsu, that submission wrestling kind of jiu-jitsu, where a guy can put people down and do damage from top position after keeping them down, is like the most important kind of jiu-jitsu.”
The once-beaten Islam Makhachev has followed in Khabib’s footsteps.
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“Their ability to get guys up against the fence and work their fence-wrestling system and hold guys down and force guys to carry body weight,“ Ryan said. ”Khabib would let guys up, and every time they go to get up, they are not just getting up, they are carrying Khabib’s body weight. So this type of wrestling for MMA that you see with Khabib, you see with Islam, you see with Khamzat. I think that is the best kind of grappling you can have for mixed martial arts.”
Sadly, the chances of seeing Khamzat in ADCC are about as good as seeing Ryan in MMA.
