Dircus Du Plessis failed to defend his title last weekend against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319.
Dircus Du Plessis also known as “DDP” was the 185 pound champion of the UFC before last Saturday. Chimaev had long awaited a shot at the title and after his submission victory over robert whittaker last october, he finally got his shot.
Earlier last week at the press conference Chimaev had stated he doesn’t care about the championship belt, but rather his money and legacy. DDP responded to the statement by saying chimaev was just scared and wanted to prefix an excuse for when he lost
Last friday DDP weighed in at 185 pounds which is the middleweight limit, as for Chimaev who weighed in under weight. This indicated Chimaev to be locked in and ready for the fight that would happen the next day.
Closer to the fight the tension in the atmosphere got more intense, with a physical altercation happening during the faceoff where both fighters collided heads and shoved each other.
“Youve got two days to hold that belt. Just two days” Chimaev stated during the press conference, indicating that he was confident that he would win the bout.
On fight day the opening round was what most thought to be boring. Chimaev is a heavy wrestling style fighter and as everyone thought, he wrestled his way to win the initial round. Little did we know, Chimeav was planning on doing this all night and wrestled aggressively laying on top of DDP while throwing very insignificant punches.
This resulted in Chimaev finally winning the middle weight belt after years of being a contender that was regarded as unreliable when it came to fight day.
Chimaev early in his career was always pulling out of fights due to illness or injury and after years of being bashed on by fans, he achieved his long awaited dream.