Du Plessis Calls Chimaev Deserves To Be The World Champion

JAKARTA - Former middleweight champion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Dricus du Plessis assessed that Khamzat Chimaev deserved the title after defeating him at UFC 319.

"Congratulations to Khamzat, he deserves it, 100 percent," said du Plessis after a fight in a video uploaded by UFC via a YouTube channel in Jakarta, Monday.

Du Plessis lost his middleweight title in the match against Chimaev in Chicago, United States, on Sunday (17/8).

The South African fighter was powerless to stop Chimaev from constantly knocking him out in a five-round game that ended in a unanimous jury decision to win Chimaev at 50-44.

The victory brought Chimaev to become the new light heavyweight champion and at the same time extended his unbeaten record with 15 wins.

After the match, du Plessis praised Chimaev for his dominant grappling technique.

"That guy (Chimaev) has incredible control above," he said.

He continued "He's like a blanket. It's not about strength, it's not about physical, but as if he knows what your next shot is. He did it without using too much power".

Although Chimaev is known to often end the fight with his aggressive grappling technique, the full focus of the Chechen fighter in that match was controlling du Plessis and preventing him from launching attacks.

Chimaev is running the fight strategy perfectly and rarely in danger, except when du Plessis tried to bounce back at the last second.

Du Plessis failed to finish magic and finally lost for the first time in his UFC career consisting of 10 fights.

Du Plessis accepted the defeat with confidence that he would find a way to reclaim the title.

"He beat me fairly tonight, he's better tonight, and I'll be back. I'll come to take back my belt," he said.

There is a long line of mid-range challenger candidates ready to challenge Chimaev, including Caio Borralho who is the main event reserves for UFC 319, Nassourdine Imavov, Reinier de Ridder, Anthony Hernandez, and rivals Chimaev, Paulo Costa.

Therefore, it remains to be seen what path du Plessis must take to get the opportunity to reclaim the middleweight championship belt.