Breaking news:Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev – UFC 319 RECAP: South African is DOMINATED for five rounds

Well played if you’ve managed to stay up through the early hours for that one. Your eyes might be sore but spare a thought for Du Plessis, pretty much half an hour of being flung around and pummled is not going to look pretty in the morning.

Thanks for your company as ever and we’ll be back next time for UFC 320.

Before tonight, there had only been eight spinning-elbow KOs in UFC history. Then Carlos Prates knocked Geoff Neal out with a peach of one before the very next fight, Britain’s Lerone Murphy repeated the trick by sending Aaron Pico to the shadow realm.

Even though Du Plessis has been the standout force at middleweight, surely the one-sided nature of the victory for Chimaev means another contender should have the next shot – tough to get excited about an immediate rematch and no reason to think it wouldn’t just be another 25-minute mauling.

Du Plessis could hardly have been less effective for the vast majority of the fight and the numbers make for grim reading.

In contrast, Chimaev landed more than 500 strikes, 23 of those were significant and I’m almost certain no title fight has had that much time on the ground clocked up.

Sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the nail – except Chimaev… he’s always the hammer.

Whoever is going to beat this guy needs either a miracle shot to knock him out or at least the kind of wrestling defence to stifle the onslaught.

Du Plessis: ‘The man has incredible control on top, he’s like a blanket, he always knew what your next move was going to be. At the end I went for it and could almost taste that victory but he beat me fair and square, he deserves it and thanks to all the fans because without you guys we don’t have a job. Everyone in South Africa, I’m sorry anybody I let down, we’ll show the world that we’ll come back stronger than ever.’

A man of few words
Chimaev: ‘He is very strong, the only champion who would take 25 minutes of that, he is a real lion. I just do what I do in training

50-44 AND NEW UFC MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMP
Chimaev completes the job many thought he would. A totally one-side affair and now he’s at the top of the mountain it is hard to see who will be able to knock him off.

A late flurry but Du Plessis was battered
Chimaev has basically cruised this. He takes Du Plessis down twice in the fifth round but is stood up and that gives the champion one last chance to throw the kitchen sink at it. He’s drained of energy but does at least threaten a guillotine and lands a really hard right hand. Chimaev ends up in bottom position for the first time in the fight but it is far too little, far too late and we’ll have a new champion announced in a few moments.

Even the ref is tired of this!
Marc Goddard stands them up when Chimaev is in a pretty dominant position in the clinch on the fence. Dubious call but one the blood thirsty locals are happy with. It doesn’t last long, Du Plessis throws one kick and is taken down again. He simply cannot stop anything coming his way and there’s five more minutes of punishment awaiting him unless he can somehow pull something out the fire.

Rinse and repeat
This picture tells the story of the first quarter of an hour of the fight. Has there ever been three more dominant rounds in a title fight? Chimaev is doing what he wants to Du Plessis, except finish him. The challenger takes him down early again and then finds another crucifix, landing some elbows this time for some more damage. Du Plessis has no answers.

This is all Chimaev
Completely one sided. The champion has no answers and hasn’t even landed one punch on the feet. Chimaev takes him down early in the round again and just ragdolls him around the edge of the octagon, kneeing his thighs and backside repeatedly, occasionally trying for a rear-naked choke but Du Plessis defends it well.

The South African is two down now and desperately needs something to turn the tide which is threatening to drown him in this one.