After successful defenses against both Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland, the South African was looking to get past his tallest hurdle to date in unbeaten phenom Khamzat Chimaev. Despite his pre-fight confidence, the champ ultimately failed in that goal, with Chimaev dominating Du Plessis at UFC 319.

Ever since his 2020 UFC debut, when he earned a trio of dominant victories in a stretch of just 65 days, Khamzat Chimaev has been the promotion's greatest enigma as a fighter who is capable of magic in one performance only to look surprisingly human in his next amid a somewhat consistent stretch of inactivity.

Jon Jones came away from UFC 319 with plenty of praise for Khamzat Chimaev. The Russian extended his unbeaten run to 15-0 with a convincing win over Dricus du Plessis, securing the UFC middleweight belt.

Khamzat Chimaev burst onto the UFC scene in the summer of 2020, finishing his first three opponents in barely two months with thrashing performances. He continued to pile up gaudy numbers, and even after injuries, illnesses and other factors slowed his roll, he remained undefeated and eventually made it to a title fight at last Saturday's UFC 319.

Matt Brown believes Chimaev's win over Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 was similar to what Georges St-Pierre would do

Khamzat Chimaev finally lived up to his early promise on Saturday night, utterly dominating Dricus du Plessis to claim the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 319.

Nate Diaz is not a fan of Khamzat Chimaev’s fighting style, especially after watching him take the UFC middleweight title away from Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319 on Aug. 15. Once scheduled to face Chimaev in his final fight in the UFC before the Russian athlete badly missed weight for UFC 279 in September

CHICAGO – Khamzat Chimaev beat Dricus Du Plessis soundly at UFC 319 on Saturday, and he wasn't afraid to let him know as he was doing it. Following his title-clinching victory at United Center, Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) what it was exactly that he told Du Plessis (23-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) as he cruised to a unanimous decision victory.

Now, the latest target of his criticism is the newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion, Khamzat Chimaev. During a recent live stream with social media personality Sneako, Diaz went off on a rant when discussing his opinion on the undefeated champion.

Reinier de Ridder recently called for a middleweight title shot against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 321. de Ridder has been on an impressive run

With fans and pundits expecting a period of dominance from the new middleweight champion, who – if anyone – can stop the Chimaev? And why might it be important that someone does?