On Saturday night, Khamzat Chimaev’s seemingly inevitable run towards a UFC world title finally bore fruit.

In the UFC 319 main event, the Chechen grappler dominated the now-former champion Dricus du Plessis across five rounds, defeating the South African by 50-44 on all three scorecards after employing a takedown heavy strategy to which Du Plessis had little riposte through 25 minutes of action.

However, despite the dominance some fans noted online that the fight wasn’t quite the thrilling spectacle many had become accustomed to throughout Chimaev’s blistering run through the welterweight and middleweight divisions.

And speaking to the media, including The Mac Life, post-fight, Chimaev said he has no time for his critics.

“I don’t care what people think. I just do my thing,” he said. “You saw how many strikes I landed, how many takedowns I had. I didn’t gas out. Now they know.”

Chimaev’s gas tank had been a source of speculation throughout fight week that it could be an avenue that Du Plessis could capitalise on in the later rounds, but ‘Borz’ said his hard work with strength and conditioning coach Sam Calavitta paid off — and he confirmed that he intends to keep this relationship for future contests.

“I’ll keep working with him,” said Chimaev. “He’s one of the best guys I’ve worked with for cardio. The training there is crazy. I’m thankful.”

The UFC 319 main event was also noted for being the first time in UFC history where a fighter was caught in three separate crucifix positions — a position Chimaev says he routinely drills on the training mats.

“That’s just something I do for fun with my training partners,” he said. “I’ll hold guys there for 25 minutes, even an hour, to humble them. Some guys say, ‘Nobody can hold me down.’ Then I put them in that position. I do it a lot in the gym.

“My team told me it would be good for us to go five rounds, so we become better fighters. I’m happy it happened. Sorry for Dana White — I know he likes finishes. I tried in the last seconds, but I made a mistake.”