How much star power does middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev possess
MMA Junkie’s “Spinning Back Clique” roundtable show returns and discusses highlights from UFC 319
Kamaru Usman thinks Khamzat Chimaev was trying to preserve energy throughout his title fight at UFC 319.
Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) outgrappled Dricus Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) en route to a dominant unanimous decision to claim the middleweight champion in Saturday’s headliner at United Center in Chicago.
Prior to the fight, Usman questioned Du Plessis’ grappling after realizing the best wrestler he had fought was Derek Brunson, who took him down and controlled him for more than two minutes. Chimaev was able to take down Du Plessis 12 times and control him for more than 21 minutes, but never came close to finishing him.
Usman explained why.
“Khamzat Chimaev possessed this one skill that can make you look like a middle school wrestler,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “That’s all that was, and even watching that, Khamzat made a lot of mistakes that I think would have got him that finish before that third round. He got to a position where it was so easy, it was almost him controlling himself. He had to control his own emotions. He had to control his gas tank because that’s not easy to dominate a guy like that. Everything is working because, in your mind, you’re wanting resistance. Resistance is how you gauge how much output I need to put out. If everything is going right, you can’t gauge how much output to put out.
“Maybe you might try finish it in that first round, then you get up in the second like, ‘Whoa, I can’t even lift my arms. Why am I so tired?’ Khamzat did a phenomenal job because he had so much success with this. But the one area I think he could have had a lot of success is when he was on the back, and Dricus was on all fours, Khamzat kind of coasted, kind of landed some knees to the thigh. He could have one, sucked him back, or you could have put that weight on Dricus Du Plessis’ arms, driving that head down, kept driving and driving. I guarantee you do that for a round, Dricus Du Plessis either wants to go on his back, or he gives up these positions a lot easier, (and) that allows you to have that choke.”
Usman gave Chimaev one of his toughest tests when he almost rallied in a majority decision loss on short notice at UFC 294. The former UFC welterweight champion took the fight up a weight class and won Round 3 on two of the judges’ scorecards, and Rounds 2 and 3 on one of them.
