Khamzat Chimaev overwhelmed Dricus du Plessis to claim the UFC middleweight title in Chicago on Saturday, a one-sided victory underscored by striking statistics that highlight the uphill battle awaiting any future challenger.
Apart from the last couple of minutes of the final round, the Chechen-born Chimaev, who began training in MMA while living in Sweden before moving to Abu Dhabi and fighting under the flag of the United Arab Emirates, utterly smothered his South African opponent.
Despite being the champion, Du Plessis came into the fight as the betting underdog and it quickly became apparent why. Having built his career on his suffocating wrestling, the 31-year-old Chimaev immediately took the champion down and the punishment began.
In all, Chimaev fired off a whopping 567 strikes over the course of five five-minute rounds, landing a stunning 529 of them. Du Plessis managed a mere 68 and landed only 45.
Nothing the challenger did was either unexpected or fancy. He took the fight to the mat with a double-leg takedown and then advanced to a crucifix position, trapping the right arm of Du Plessis with his legs and lying across his opponent's torso to control his other arm.
That left Du Plessis almost defenseless as Chimaev fired short left hands at his head, knowing that one wrong move by the man on the bottom while trying to escape could put him in a worse position, or even see him knocked out.
To his great credit Du Plessis, who is also 31, never quit but by the end of the third round he was so far behind on the scorecards that he needed a finish. He somehow found the energy to go on the offensive in the final two minutes of the fight, but to no avail.
Incredibly for such a one-sided fight, the toughness of Du Plessis managed to keep the fans in attendance at the United Center on the edge of their seats, despite knowing that Chimaev was on his way to a one-sided unanimous decision victory.
The UFC had a number of middleweight contenders sitting cage-side, and their only consolation as they watched the brutal beat-down of Du Plessis and Chimaev's coronation might have been that he didn't manage to finish the fight early with a violent knockout or submission.
If that is indeed his only flaw, none of them will be heading to the gym on Monday morning and relishing the prospect of facing the new champion and challenging him for the belt.
