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Chimaev challenged Du Plessis for the middleweight title at UFC 319 in Chicago last month. While Chimaev was a heavy betting favorite going into the fight, there were a number of fans and pundits who expected the champ to defend his title with an upset win. The consensus was that Du Plessis would take over in the later rounds if he weathered the initial storm from “Borz.”
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Many UFC fighters also predicted that Du Plessis would wear down Chimaev with his gas tank. However, Chimaev took Du Plessis down in the opening seconds and controlled him throughout the first round. As the same script played out round after round, “Stillknocks” barely seemed to have any answer for Chimaev’s wrestling. Chimaev was announced as the new champion after five dominant rounds of ragdolling the South African.
Notables Picked Against Chimaev at UFC 319
Chimaev recently roasted those UFC fighters and pundits who picked against him at UFC 319. The undefeated Chechen-born posted a compilation video of those picking against him, questioning their predictive capability. Among those predicting Chimaev to lose were former middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, GOAT contender Demetrious Johnson, two-time featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, MMA Guru, Hall of Famer Michael Bisping, coach Tim Welch, and Chael Sonnen.
“You understand now that you can’t listen to these monkeys,” Chimaev wrote on social media.
Du Plessis was undefeated in nine UFC outings before losing to Chimaev. Du Plessis dethroned Sean Strickland last year and defended his title against Adesanya and in a rematch against Strickland. Meanwhile, Chimaev earned a title shot just two fights after permanently moving up to middleweight. Chimaev has finished six of his nine UFC wins, only going the distance against Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns before Du Plessis.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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