Khamzat Chimaev dominant in win over Rhys McKee
We had a great fight to kick off the UFC Fight Island III main card tonight, as promotional newcomers Khamzat Chimaev and Rhys McKee had an entertaining, but quick fight. McKee was making his UFC debut, a former Cage Warriors prospect, while Chimaev made his UFC debut just ten days ago at UFC Fight Island I. Chimaev absolutely mauled his first UFC opponent that night, John Phillips, landing vicious ground-and-pound throughout the fight, until he wrapped up a D’Arce choke and got the tap at 1:12 of round two. Chimaev fought at 185 lbs in his octagon debut, but was able to return to his natural weight class of 170 lbs this time around.
As soon as the opening round bell sounded, Chimaev gets a body lock on McKee. It looked like he was going to try and suplex him, but ended up just getting the trip. It didn’t take long before he moved to mount, then took McKee’s back. Again, like his fight with Phillips, he landed ruthless ground-and-pound, but this time he got the stoppage from it at 3:09 of round one. Two UFC fights in ten days, two dominant victories, two finishes, one submission, and one TKO. Chimaev is for real, he’s so physically strong and technical.
It’s crazy, he out-landed Phillips 124-2 in total strikes, and it said he’d out-landed McKee 43-0 in total strikes in this fight. He got the stoppage just moments later, so he out-landed his debut opponent 124-2, and out-landed his next somewhere between 50 to 55-0, McKee didn’t land a single shot. As we stated in our first recap on Chimaev, he fights just like UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. He’s a bit lankier, but aside from that, their ground games are incredibly similar, in what they do and their effectiveness of it.
Chimaev improved his record to 8-0 with his win tonight, five (T)KO’s and three submissions. At just 26-years-old, a young 26 at that, sky is the limit for this assassin! It’ll be interesting to see what the UFC decides to do next with him.
