There is a new champion in the UFC. Khamzat Chimaev remained undefeated by putting on a near-flawless performance to take the middleweight belt away from Dricus Du Plessis (23-2) in Chicago at UFC 319 on Saturday. Chimaev, ESPN’s No. 2 middleweight, landed 12 takedowns, the second most in a UFC middleweight fight and tied for third most in a title fight since 2015. It was the first loss of Du Plessis’ UFC career.
Before DDP and Chimaev entered the cage, fans were delighted by back-to-back first-round spinning back elbow knockouts by undefeated featherweight Lerone Murphy and Carlos Prates against Aaron Pico and Geoff Neal, respectively. It is the first time in UFC history there have been two spinning back elbow victories on the same card.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Andreas Hale and Jeff Wagenheim were on hand to provide results and analysis from those and nine other fights on the UFC 319 card.