In the main event of UFC 319, Khamzat Chimaev dominated from start to finish.
The challenger was so in control of his first UFC title fight that Chimaev even took the opportunity to speak to Dricus du Plessis while in the Octagon.
While ‘Borz’ was able to completely dictate the fight with his grappling, this didn’t necessarily make for the most entertaining of contests.
This led to several stand-ups in the fight which Demetrious Johnson criticized referee Marc Goddard for when reacting to the main event.
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‘Big’ John McCarthy defends Marc Goddard’s decision to stand Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus du Plessis up
There have been some controversial stand ups in the past and following the one-sided nature of the UFC 319 main event, this card didn’t produce an example of a highly significant one.
However, some still felt like Khamzat Chimaev was so completely dominant over Dricus du Plessis that he shouldn’t have been called to his feet due to a lack of action.
Iconic referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy always offers valuable insight into officiating discussions as a veteran of the sport who helped to create the unified rules.
McCarthy argued that he thought one of Marc Goddard’s stand ups was completely acceptable, despite the fact that it had little impact on the fight.
“I thought one of them was… He’s trying to put some kind of action into the fight that maybe is going to be a little bit different. Maybe they’ll be in the stand-up for a little bit. You’re not going to change that fight.”
He praised Goddard’s approach in general to refereeing the main event, specifically highlighting how he didn’t intervene while Chimaev was in dominant positions.
“I’m gonna be overall, Marc Goddard did a great job in that fight. He let them be. A lot of people get nervous when people are in crucifix positions and it’s like, there’s no reason to get nervous here. Time to get nervous? You start having elbows and you’re seeing cuts starting to get opened up… He did a great job in that fight.”
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Khamzat Chimaev entered the UFC history books with his staggering control time
Khamzat Chimaev recorded a remarkable amount of control time in his first UFC title fight, which could have been even higher if there had been no stand ups.
In controlling Dricus du Plessis for 21 minutes and 40 seconds, ‘Borz’ has now produced the second highest control time in one fight.
The current record is held by Sean Sherk, who controlled Hermes Franca for 22 minutes and 18 seconds in a lightweight title defense at UFC 73 in 2007.
Chimaev also broke the record for the most strikes landed in one UFC fight at 529.