Khamzat Chimaev dominated Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 to capture the middleweight title, but his performance left fans divided. While the numbers showed dominance, he never truly pushed for the finish, only threatening in the crucifix position as he rained down elbows and punches.
UFC veteran Matt Brown, who was in Chicago for the event, acknowledged Chimaev’s dominance but didn’t shy away from calling the performance “boring”
“It was boring,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “[Georges St-Pierre] had a lot of boring fights. But we don’t really talk about how boring GSP was, do we? We talk about how dominant he was. That’s the game that we’re playing. You can’t take anything away from Khamzat for what he did. It’s cool watching him develop.”
Brown pointed out that Chimaev returned to his wrestling roots after experimenting with striking against Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. In this fight, he leaned on what made him special.
“I think we see a lot of these wrestlers come into MMA … we see wrestlers think they’re strikers. I think Khamzat went through that phase a little bit with Burns and Usman and then he was like, ‘wait a minute, I’m the best wrestler here, what am I doing?’ And he got back to it. He got a championship out of it.”
Brown emphasized that every great champion has endured criticism for playing it safe, and Chimaev is no different.
“Jon [Jones] had boring fights. GSP had boring fights. [Matt] Hughes had boring fights,” Brown said. “The majority of champions do have boring fights, it’s just part of the game. You can’t expect to just have exciting fights every time and be a longtime champion. It’s not a good strategy for competing, especially when you have the option of taking guys down. This isn’t GLORY. This isn’t Lumpinee Stadium. You have the option to take a guy down, control him, put him on his back, and not allow him to put you at risk.”
While fans may have wanted more action, Brown argued that Chimaev fought smart against a dangerous opponent.
“We can’t fault him for that,” Brown said. “It’s so easy to say when we’re sitting out here. He’s the one feeling things and he’s the one sensing DDP. Look, DDP is a tough son of a b*tch. He’s not a guy you want to be taking a bunch of risks with. I thought Khamzat fought very intelligently. He won basically a 10-8 round probably three or four rounds in a world championship fight. Do you really want to criticize that?”
At the same time, Brown admitted that the criticism has some merit since fans expected fireworks from Chimaev, but he chose to secure the belt without unnecessary risks.
“I was kind of explaining that to some of the people around [saying] ‘it’s boring.’ I’m like guys, this is a prize fight and he’s going to win the prize. That’s his object of this fight, to win the prize. Not to make you happy because you want to see blood.”
Looking ahead, Brown believes it will take something special to dethrone Chimaev now that he’s champion. His wrestling is an unsolved puzzle, similar to how St-Pierre controlled his title reign.
“Until someone solves his wrestling puzzle, I’m not sure how you’re going to beat him,” Brown said. “Someone’s going to have to give him a hard time taking them down where he is forced to stand. Then it’s going to be a close fight on the feet because I don’t think Khamzat is going to be an easy guy to beat on the feet either. As boring as this fight was, it was boring, I totally, fully admit that, as boring as it was, watching his progression, his ceiling is absolutely up to the stars.”
Brown also believes Chimaev’s evolution could bring more exciting finishes in the future. But for now, he remains nearly unstoppable with a style that mirrors GSP’s ability to neutralize opponents and rack up wins.
