Khamzat Chimaev submits John Phillips in UFC debut
Our preliminary main event tonight at UFC on ESPN 13 showcased a showdown between middleweight talents John Phillips and the undefeated promotional newcomer Khamzat Chimaev. Welsh prospect John Phillips came into the fight with a record of 22-9 (1 NC), finishing all of his wins, 17 in the first round, 20 of which were via knockout, and two via submission. Chimaev also had finished all six of his wins, four via knockout, and two via submission.
As soon as round one started, Chimaev immediately took Phillips down and starting ground-and-pounding him. The entire rest of round one showed Chimaev viciously batter Phillips while riding him along the fence, it was so dominant that it could’ve easily been a 10-8 round. The same thing happened at the start of round two. No more than ten seconds into the round, Chimaev immediately took Phillips down and started pounding on him again, until he wrapped up a D’Arce choke and got the tap at 1:12 of round two.
We all knew what Phillips’ gameplan coming into this fight was, to score a knockout. We also all knew what Chimaev’s gameplan for this fight was, to take Phillips down, given how great of a wrestler he is. Phillips isn’t a very big middleweight, he’s only 5’11”, but he’s incredibly strong and even more powerful, but it wasn’t enough to defeat this highly touted Swedish prospect.
This is also how Chimaev’s first six fights went, he’s such a dominant talent, it’ll be very interesting to see what the UFC does next with him. It’s not very often you see someone with just six fights dominate someone that has over 30 like that, let alone finish them. Chimaev honestly fights just like UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. His control on the ground in all areas is as good as it gets, and his ground-and-pound is never ending, not to mention, he showed us how good not only his wrestling is, but his grappling as well.
