If you were anywhere near Jacksonville, Florida, the crackling sound you might have heard late Saturday night was the Khamjat Chimayev propaganda train slowing its roll. Gilbert Burns was about to apply the brakes. Burns was bloodied and beaten in a brutal opening round, but survived. And as his UFC 273 battle against the skyrocketing star, which is Chimaev, moves to the second round, Burns begins to regain control.
It was unlike anything we had seen in Chimayev's first four UFC outings. This time his match was competitive. And Chimaev showed that he was up to the challenge. After three rounds of back-and-forth, during which everyone hit big punches and big moments came, Chimaev was allowed to prove something important and durable from all three judges (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Chimaev showed that he is in the octagon with the elite of the UFC's welterweight division. The propaganda train continues to run concurrently.
This victory was very different from the nights of total domination of Chimaev that had come before. In each of his previous appearances, Chimaev seemed superhuman in accumulating video game-type numbers. 124-2 lead in total strikes in his UFC debut. A 68–0 shutout in his return 10 days later. A one-punch knockout of 17 seconds in his third appearance. Then another striking shutout (58-0) talking to UFC President Dana White on the side of the cage during the fight! Supernatural, indeed.
But those performances came against John Phillips, Rhys Mackie, Gerald Meerschart and Li Jingliang. Every one of them was a perfectly suitable foe for a new fighter to the UFC, but the only one of them you'll find in the rankings is Lee, who is down in double digits.
Standing across the cage from Chimaev on Saturday was a different level of combat. Burns is a multiple-time jiu-jitsu world champion who has been barely a year away from the challenge for the UFC title. At welterweight, Burns is only behind champion Kamaru Usman and two-time challenger Colby Covington in both the UFC and ESPN rankings.
For Chimaev, this was no small step in the competition. It was a big leap. And he navigated it with confidence and resilience.
Initially, Chimaev was heading down a more astonishing path. He dropped Burns with a crisp jab, and from the top position on the canvas he dropped punches and elbows, one of which opened a cut on the Brazilian's head. But Burns made it to the horns, and in Round 2 he appeared revived, his offense flowing. During an exchange near the cage, he dropped Chimaev with his right hand. At this time, both men were covered in blood and breathing heavily. But both men had enough to produce a brutal third round to complete a classic fight, with the crowd roaring.
If Chimaev's performance was surprising, its anticipation was real. Throughout the week leading up to UFC 273, fans and fighters on social media expressed more excitement to see Chimaev than any champion at the top of the bill. And despite Burns' high credentials and Chimaev's relative inexperience at a high level, many had no hesitation in predicting Chimaev's victory. Some hoped that he would make it easier.
When UFC President Dana White went on SiriusXM radio to promote the pay-per-view, he talked only a little about Alexander Volkanovsky's main event featherweight title defense against Chan Sung Jung. He didn't say a word about the co-main bantamweight title match between champion Aljaman Sterling and former champion Petr Yan. Instead, White spent most of his time talking about Chimaev, "somebody that people are very excited about." White's own enthusiasm for the fight this weekend didn't stop either. He even looked to Chimayev's next one, saying that if the Chechnya-born Swede beat Burns, the UFC would attempt to book him against Covington on a rare network TV show.
The hype has a way of getting ahead of itself on those rare occasions when athletes reveal themselves to be driven by the "it" factor. Conor McGregor was known to be an outstanding star long before he ousted longtime featherweight champion Jose Aldo in 13 seconds in 2015 — in his seventh UFC fight — to fully live up to his billing. From then until now no one in MMA was so hyped, until Chimaev came along.
But it's not just the fan enthusiasm and promoter bluster that's behind Chimew. Although he is ranked just 11th in the UFC's welterweight rankings, he went into the cage as the No. 2 Burns-at-550 betting favorite on Saturday. To put this into perspective, according to ESPN Stats & Information, since the UFC rankings began in 2013, any top-five fighter outside the top 10 has had harder odds against an opponent than Burns (+400). have not encountered.
Bookmakers in Las Vegas don't get bogged down in hype or potential. Chimaev clearly proved to him that he was at the top level.
Saturday night was a big night for the fighters, who were proving their worth at an already high position in the game. Right after Chimaev validated his whirlwind of hype, Sterling found himself in a validating position, a surreal one for a champion: he was defending a bantamweight belt that many who followed MMA felt. that it is not a sign of his supremacy. Thirteen months earlier, Sterling became the first fighter in UFC history to win a title by disqualification when Yan struck him with an illegal knee that left Sterling unable to continue.
Between that time and this weekend, a lot of negativity was thrown at Sterling, partly because he was losing the title fight until he won it, and partly because of one posted on social media. Because of the picture she was shown celebrating with a belt hour. When he threw it in the octagon. Why MMA fans would lash out at Sterling for this is anyone's guess. But the fans who make the most noise can be the fans who hurt the most.
Sterling lived up to the most demanding observers in Saturday's co-main event, winning his rematch with Yan to cement his position at the top of the division. It was a split decision, indicating a close fight, but Sterling dominated round two and was cleared in one of the second rounds by two judges who were close. It had to feel most special in the title defense. All the champions of all the divisions are asked to prove themselves every time - but the demand for Sterling was high.
Featherweight champion Volkanovsky completely demolished Jung in the main event after Chimaev and Sterling's victories. The champion was adept at isolating and toppling Jung, who continued to advance until referee Herb Dean mercifully stepped in to end the brutality in the fourth round. Volkanowski, in his third title defense, has never looked quicker and more in command.
But no one was going to outdo Chimaev this night - although Burns came very close. Would anyone ever steal the show from a 27-year-old Chechnya-born Swede? If he ends up in the cage with Covington as the UFC would like, Chimaev (11-0) will certainly be the crowd favorite, but what will the oddmakers say? And if Chimaev had to get through that tough hurdle, nothing would stand between him and Osman, assuming the champion is successful in defending against Leon Edwards.
Usman knows what he will be up against. He helped Burns, who had been a training partner before opponents, prepare for Saturday's fight. Osman was definitely watching. He knows Chimaev will be a handful. As unimaginable as it may seem for a fighter, with just five UFC bouts under his belt, Chimayev seems ready for whatever comes.