Paddy Pimblett disagrees with the fans who booed Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC 319 performance.
Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) landed 12 takedowns and had over 21 minutes of control time in a lopsided decision win over Dricus Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) to claim the middleweight title in Saturday’s main event at United Center in Chicago. As Pimblett watched Chimaev hold down Du Plessis round after round, he couldn’t help but praise the challenger’s dominance.
“For the casuals, this isn’t going to be a fun fight to watch, but for people who actually do MMA and old school opinions, they’ll appreciate this,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel. “I appreciate it because this is levels of the game, and Khamzat’s grappling level is very high. His wrestling and MMA wrestling is brilliant.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a fight like this, like champion, such a one-sided beatdown because Chimaev nearly won every second of this fight. Joe Rogan is right: Khamzat looks fresh. Everyone questioned his cardio going into this fight, and he looks sound. …The crowd is booing. It’s not Khamzat’s fault that Dricus can’t stop him doing this.”
As he wrapped up his breakdown, Pimblett didn’t waste the opportunity to take a shot at fellow lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan.
“Arman doing his best to get as much screen time as he can while his mate wins the belt,” Pimblett said. “Closest that tool comes to touching it.”
