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History · 2023 · UFC 294: Makhachev vs. Volkanovski 2 · Kamaru Usman vs Khamzat Chimaev
From the tape · 21 Oct 2023

Kamaru Usman vs Khamzat Chimaev

UFC 294: Makhachev vs. Volkanovski 2 · Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Result

Khamzat Chimaev beat Kamaru Usman

Method
Decision - Majority
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
MiddleweightCo-MainReferee · Jason Herzog

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner KamaruUsman“The Nigerian Nightmare”Kill Cliff FC · Auchi, Edo
VSOn the tape
Blue corner KhamzatChimaev“Borz”Allstars Training Center · Dubai
Middleweight3 rounds21 Oct 2023
The story going in
  • Has dropped 2 straight in the UFC.
  • Comes in on a 6-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 5 of 15 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 5 of 6 UFC wins.
21-5
Record
15-1
36
Age
−7 yr29
6' 0"
Height
+2″6' 2"
+1″76″
Reach
75″
Switch
Stance
Orthodox
+1117
UFC bouts
6
5/1533% of wins
Finishes
+50%5/683% of wins
Kill Cliff FC
Gym
Allstars Training Center
Auchi, Edo
From
Dubai
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action1 sub attempt
Kamaru Usman3 sig landed
HEAD67%2 of 2BODY33%1 of 1LEGS0%0 landed
Khamzat Chimaev16 sig landed
HEAD94%15 of 16BODY6%1 of 1LEGS0%0 landed
3 of 3
Sig.
strikes
16 of 17
0 of 0
Take-
downs
2 of 7
0:00
Control
4:35
0
Sub
attempts
1
Distance 1Clinch 1Ground 1
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 0Ground 15
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary8–10David Lethaby8–10Vito Paolillo8–10
Round 25:00 of action
Kamaru Usman11 sig landed
HEAD45%5 of 9BODY27%3 of 5LEGS27%3 of 4
Khamzat Chimaev9 sig landed
HEAD33%3 of 10BODY22%2 of 6LEGS44%4 of 4
11 of 18
Sig.
strikes
9 of 20
0 of 0
Take-
downs
1 of 1
0:00
Control
0:41
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 11Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 9Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary10–9David Lethaby10–9Vito Paolillo9–10
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Kamaru Usman22 sig landed
HEAD91%20 of 41BODY9%2 of 4LEGS0%0 landed
Khamzat Chimaev13 sig landed
HEAD69%9 of 27BODY0%0 of 2LEGS31%4 of 4
22 of 45
Sig.
strikes
13 of 33
0 of 1
Take-
downs
1 of 4
0:00
Control
2:00
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 21Clinch 0Ground 1
Where it
happened
Distance 12Clinch 0Ground 1
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary9–10David Lethaby10–9Vito Paolillo10–9

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Majority Decision

Referee · Jason Herzog
Kamaru UsmanKhamzat Chimaev
Official totals — Kamaru Usman first
JudgeTotal
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide27–29
David Lethaby2.1 avg spread · 44% wide28–28
Vito Paolillo2.1 avg spread · 48% wide27–29

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 29 scored, Kamaru Usman first · unofficial

Jake Noecker Cageside Press26–30
Brian Knapp Sherdog.com27–30
Cody Merrow MMA Underground27–30
Damien Bartonek Fox West Texas27–30
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com26–29
MM AMania.com27–29
Alexander K. Lee MMAFighting.com27–29
Bloody Elbow.com27–29
Daniel Yanofsky The Sporting News27–29
Dan Levi Best Fight Picks27–29
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com27–29
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com27–29
Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com27–29
Steve Duncan mma.uno27–29
Michael DeSantis MMASucka.com27–29
Nick Baldwin theScore27–29
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com28–29
MM AJunkie.com28–29
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com28–29
John Pollock POST Wrestling28–29
Ben Duffy Sherdog.com28–29
Drake Riggs MMAMania.com28–28
Nolan King MMAJunkie.com28–28
Alex Behunin MMA Mania28–28
Andy Stevenson SevereMMA.com28–28
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com29–28
Scott Fontana New York Post29–28
Sheehan SevereMMA.com29–28
Combat Press.com29–28

Fan vote · unofficial

29-27 Chimaev · 27%29-28 Usman · 14%29-28 Chimaev · 5%30-26 Chimaev · 5%

3,017 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Kamaru Usman

2.79takedowns / 15 min
2.79 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
5.32 / 15m
6.34 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
9.17 / 15m
44%
ACCURACY
58%
0.10 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.40 / 15m

Khamzat Chimaev

5.32takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Middleweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Kamaru Usmanclose only
no opening line on recordclose 31.1%
Khamzat Chimaevclose only
no opening line on recordclose 68.9%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

We hold the closing consensus for this bout but no opening line, so the strip marks the close alone: Kamaru Usman 31.1%, Khamzat Chimaev 68.9%, vig removed.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Kamaru Usman20931.1%
Khamzat Chimaev170-25568.9%
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10 · BestFightOdds has no fighter page scraped for Kamaru Usman, so that corner’s CLOSE is read from the opponent’s row, which names it explicitly. No opening line exists for that corner and none is shown.. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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