Kamaru Usman Snubs Short-Notice Talks in Khamzat Chimaev Loss, Gives Champ Credit After UFC 319

Khamzat Chimaev was a class of his own and outgrappled the champ during Saturday’s UFC 319 PPV headliner at United Center in Chicago. The subsequent win has brought questions about Chimaev’s close win over Kamaru Usman and just how good Usman is per this power scaling.

Dricus Du Plessis, otherwise quite the UFC closer and striker, could not answer to ‘Borz’ and his tremendous pressure. Khamzat Chimaev mauled him with top and side control and tapped away for 21:40 control time! However, Kamaru Usman in 1/2 names that actually gave him troubles when they fought, that too on short notice.

‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, though, for his part, was all class about in his reverence to the new champ.

Let’s address this, the whole, ‘Oh you took the fight on this days’ notice.’ Listen, at the end of the day, I know who I am as a fighter, and the way I approach this game, and so does Khamzat…It was an ‘L,’ and there’s a mutual respect there because each and every fight that we go into as fighters, you don’t know what we’re dealing with. You don’t know what he was dealing with, you don’t know what I was dealing with. It looked the way it did. 

Kamaru Usman on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast

Usman got up to the 185-pound mark and pushed him to the brink on just days’ notice in his majority decision loss. Khamzat Chiamev was to fight Paulo Costa, but after a subsequent elbow surgery due to Staph, Costa couldn’t make it to the fight.

DDP, Usman, and Gibert Burns thus remain among the only few names Borz has not finished in UFC tenure yet. But the other two were much more stiff challenges than the UFC 319 main event.

After being defeated by Chimaev, Kamaru Usman returned from a 20-month layoff to end the winning streak of Joaquin Buckley and send the contender packing in the UFC on ESPN 69 headliner in June. He thus ended his long 0-3 slump, including the UFC 294 loss.

Reinier de Ridder isn’t ready to dismiss questions about Khamzat Chimaev’s conditioning after UFC 319

With his elite grappling skills and large frame, Reinier de Ridder would certainly present an interesting skills test to current UFC 185-pound king Khamzat Chimaev. The duo has even hinted at it.

The Dutch Knight is akin to submission threats and servicable grappling, but also finds his success with pocket striking. Much like his grapples, when aimed at the lower extremities, like with the knee, his strikes have found good success in recent outings.

While RDR was impressed with the UFC 319 PPV main event win, he doesn’t think it totally answered the questions about Chimaev’s extended cardio.

It didn’t really have anything to do with cardio this one. We saw that he did very well, but the thing is, you need to make somebody tired. Dricus was surviving in the first two rounds but that didn’t take anything out of Khamzat’s gas tank…I do think this wasn’t the fight that we see that in. I think he needs to be tested a bit more to be able to say more about how his cardio

Reinier de Ridder to Denis Shkuratov for the ‘Submission Radio’ Show (🎥: @SubmissionRadio on YT)

Many billed that he’d only find success in early rounds. Some others had different takes, having faced him. Kamaru Usman, for example, was one of the few analysts who picked Chimaev to win pre-fight, no ifs, no buts.

As such, there is some truth that DDP did not bring in any threat to test Chimaev’s cardio. And historically, the Chechen fighter has been known to tire out in the later rounds. RDR means to put that to the test when he faces him.