Former champions blast fans for criticizing Chimaev's UFC 319 performance: 'Turn off the TV'

Khamzat Chimaev dominated Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 (Photo: Instagram/UFC)

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Khamzat Chimaev 's dominant victory over Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319 continues to generate debate. The Chechen fighter, crowned middleweight champion after controlling his opponent for 25 minutes, divided opinions among fans, who criticized the "tied-up" style of the fight. In response to the complaints, two former champions came to the defense of the new titleholder.

Robert Whittaker and Demetrious Johnson didn't hold back in their criticism of fans who called the fight "boring." Both praised Chimaev's level of dominance and suggested that anyone who doesn't like grappling should simply change the channel.

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“Anyone who says it was a boring fight is a casual fan. If you’re a fan of the sport and you’re not fascinated by Chimaev ’s ability to control someone as persistent as Dricus , who escaped bad situations multiple times, who never gets physically exhausted, who is super strong and has conditioning for days, if you’re not fascinated by such one-sided dominance, you have to be casual. Because you never see that. That level of control in a title fight. We’ve seen someone crucified for 15 minutes. How can you be a fan of the sport and not think that’s crazy?”, stated Robert Whittaker on his MMA Arcade podcast.

Along the same lines, but even more directly, Demetrious Johnson mocked the critics by saying that they can simply "change the channel" if they don't like fights with a strong grappling presence.

“If you don’t want to see grappling, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu, don’t watch UFC . Go watch ONE Championship , Lion Fighting , GLORY , kickboxing, Muay Thai, right? It’s very simple. You’re complaining about something that’s a very simple problem to solve. Let’s say Khamzat is going to fight again and you don’t want to watch his style. All you need to do is press this button here, which is called ‘off’ . You don’t need to see Khamzat ’s wrestling , it’s simple to solve. You’re making this a bigger problem than it is,” Demetrious Johnson fired off on his YouTube channel.

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