Who won the Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev UFC Middleweight Title Fight?
South Africa’s Duplesis has not lost since 2018 when he stopped one championship star, Roberto Seldick. Since then, he has won 11 straight battles in the UFC, including a nine. Highlights of South Africa’s early UFC careers were against Daren Till, Derek Brunson and Robert Whittaker. He won the title early last year with a decisive defeat from Sean Strickland. He then defended the middleweight belt twice, initially submitting to former champion Israel Adesanya, and later made another decision against Strickland, which was more decisive than their first meeting.
Chimaev has been one of the hottest outlooks in MMA since his arrival on the UFC roster. He made his Octagon debut in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, earning three wins in a few months, jumping between welterweight and middleweight. He has been very inactive since then, partly due to the possibility of pandemic-related health issues, but has recently beat several high-level fighter jets in welterweight and middleweight formats. These include Li Jingliang, Gilbert Burns, Kevin Holland, Kamaru Usman and more recently former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. He submitted Whitaker within the round and sent Australian UFC legends to dentists with his squeeze strength.
When Du Plessis and Chimaev met in August this year, we can see who won. However, it may be the best fight the UFC can do right now. At least outside John Jones vs Tom Aspinoll and Islamic Makachev vs Ilia Topria.
