Paulo Costa unimpressed by Khamzat Chimaev's win over Dricus du Plessis: "Afraid to fight him fairly"

Although Khamzat Chimaev won a lopsided decision against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319, Paulo Costa is far from impressed with the newly crowned middleweight champion's performance.

Like many fans, Costa was critical of Chimaev's over-reliance on wrestling to rack up round control time during the fight.

For context, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, the Chechen-born Emirati was successful in holding his opponent down on the mat for most of the fight, securing almost 22 minutes of control time.

Interestingly, however, the 31-year-old only landed 37 significant strikes on du Plessis in the fight despite landing 529 strikes in total. After the event, many criticised 'Borz' for being content with controlling his opponent rather than attempting to advance position or hunting for a finish.

During a recent interview with Submission Radio, 'Borrachinha' was highly critical of Chimaev's UFC 319 showing, deeming him afraid of the South African:

"No, I was not impressed... Everybody knew what he was going to do. He did the same, he just shot on the leg in the very beginning. The thing is DDP [du Plessis] did a huge mistake, he got caught in the crucifix and that thing, he stood there for the whole round, almost five minutes. That made him soo tired. His fight was over, over there."

He added:

"He needed to fight back to get up on his feet... He is a tough guy to fight and Khamzat Chimaev knew that, that why he held him [down] for so long. Even the fifth round. Fifth round Dricus was still dangerous you know and Chimaev was afraid to fight him fairly. He just held the guy [down] for 25 minutes."

Check out Paulo Costa's comments below (6:33):

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Paulo Costa was looking for Khamzat Chimaev during UFC 319 fight week

Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev share genuine bad blood, and 'Borrachinha' seems to be itching to get his hands on the newly crowned middleweight kingpin.

In the lead-up to UFC 318, Costa had accused the 31-year-old of sending threatening messages to his girlfriend, and sure enough, the Brazilian was counting on confronting 'Borz' during UFC 319 fight week. In the same interview, he said:

"During his training camp, I went to California to find him. I texted [the] owner of that palce, JAXXON's [JAXXON and Santos Performance Studio]… [I texted him asking] Hey, I'm here in California. Let me go and see that ugly boy... He saw, but he didn't respond. I think he didn't want to compromise himself."