'Borz' delivered one of the most dominant performances in promotional history at UFC 319, pinning 'DDP' to the mat for nearly five full rounds en route to becoming the new undisputed middleweight world champion.
While the fight lacked the fireworks that everyone had hoped for, there's no denying that Chimaev's showing established him as the UFC's official boogeyman. Looking back at Chimaev's title-winning performance on the Uncrowned Post-Fight Show, Irish journalist Petesy Carroll marveled at the undefeated Chechen monster's mastery on the mat.
What this guy is doing is he's not actually allowing you to grapple him," Carroll told Ariel Helwani. "He's taking you down. Once top position is established against a wrestler that dominant, it doesn't really matter how good your guard is, you know...? Fluffy [Anthony Hernandez] is an exceptional grappler as well... but what this guy seems to be doing is just taking guys' legs out of the equation immediately.
He takes down, he moves to side control, and as we saw today with the crucifix, just immediately going back to that.
Chimaev landed an incredible 529 total strikes out of 567 -- an impressive 93% clip -- while Du Plessis only managed to connect with 45 total strikes. 'DDP' was also taken down 12 times, surrendering 21:40 of control time to Chimaev.
What's next for 'Borz' remains to be seen, but after his complete destruction of the South African sensation, Chimaev is likely to be a massive favorite in his first UFC title defense, whether it comes against submission specialist Reinier de Ridder, Fighting Nerds' favorite Caio Borralho, or current top-ranked contender Nassourdine Imavov.