Khamzat Chimaev had some time to chat with Dricus Du Plessis' corner during their UFC 319 headliner.
'Borz' beat the former middleweight champ from pillar to post in Chicago, earning a decisive unanimous decision to become the UFC's new 185-pound king.
Chimaev controlled the action for 21:40 of the 25-minute affair, handily taking down the South African sensation and pummeling him with more than 500 strikes. During the onslaught, 'Borz' took a bit of a breather to engage with Du Plessis' corner.
Though we were unable to hear what was said during the live broadcast, Chimaev later revealed what he told Du Plessis' coach, Morne Visser.
"I just was working on him," Chimaev said during his post-fight interview. "So, I had some cool time on there. So, just spoke with him, spoke with his coach, middle of the fight, was happy. I say, 'Good job. Work harder, guys.'"
Visser is already planning to take Chimaev's advice, vowing to help his fighter bounce back and "destroy" the undefeated Chechen champion in an eventual rematch.
"There's obviously a lot of things happening in the middleweight division, but early next year," Visser told Submission Radio of Du Plessis' return to the Octagon. "And back for the belt, that's what we want. Nothing else. I'm not gonna let Dricus fight a ranked fighter. Ranked fighters are for other guys, not for us. We want the belt back.
"Instead of spending time to prepare for another fight camp, to prepare for [Reinier de Ridder], I would rather spend that time to fix the problem that we've got and then go into a camp. So I won't just take a fight because fights are available. I wanna fix this problem because we're gonna face Khamzat, and I wanna destroy him this time."
After getting manhandled for five full rounds, it's hard to imagine that the UFC will be chomping at the bit to book an immediate rematch, but as they say in MMA, anything is possible.