Khamzat Chimaev left UFC 319 with his undefeated record intact and two belts; the UFC middleweight world title and a BJJ black belt. It was an absolutely flawless performance by the elite grappler in the biggest fight of his career so far, as he was challenging Dricus Du Plessis for the title. Chimaev answered every question that anyone had of him prior to the fight, as he outgrappled Du Plessis consistently and kept up his momentum throughout all five rounds. Previously he’d slowed down towards the end of his fights and some thought this might be his undoing, but he proved the doubters wrong in style.
Chimaev clean-swept the judge’s scorecards against Du Plessis, winning every single round in every judge’s eyes. He did well in the striking, but the vast majority of the fight played out on the ground and he dominated virtually every single second of it. He had an astounding 21 minutes and 40 seconds of control time and landed over 500 strikes across the five rounds, leaving very little room for Du Plessis to mount any offense at all. This meant that the reading of the scorecards was practically a formality and everyone in the arena knew that he had won the fight before the decision was official.
Khamzat Chimaev was immediately presented with the middleweight world title as is customary, but his coach quickly presented him with his BJJ black belt too. It was only 5 years ago that Chimaev was given his blue belt, after winning his first two UFC fights in just 10 days. He continued his winning ways against even better opponents each time out, eventually beating Kamaru Usman by decision and receiving his brown belt in the octagon in 2023. That was the first time that he beat a former champion and he’s since beat another, submitting Robert Whittaker in the first round to earn his title-shot.
With this latest win over Du Plessis, Chimaev is now 15-0 in his professional career with 12 finishes and 9 of those fights have come in the UFC. He’s finally reached the top of the mountain at middleweight and he’ll likely have to put the title on the line against a few contenders. Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho are fighting soon and the winner there would likely be the top contender, but Reinier de Ridder is also shooting up the rankings at the moment and might be just another fight or two away from a title-shot. If Chimaev can win one or two of those fights then it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him drop down to welterweight for a chance to become a double champion.
