Khamzat Chimaev has taken the UFC by storm this year and already finds himself lined up to face a top-three welterweight contender when he meets Leon Edwards in December.
Chimaev is the hottest prospect the UFC has seen in quite some time. The 26-year-old is a natural welterweight but also regularly competes up at middleweight. In fact, two of his three wins in the UFC have been at 185 pounds, including his stunning knockout of Gerald Meerschaert in September.
Chimaev has declared he will “smash everybody” at both welterweight and middleweight and hasn’t been shy sharing his opinions on current UFC fighters.
The rising star recently sat down with Dan Hardy when the two were on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi and Hardy asked Chimaev for his thoughts on the reigning titleholders at 170 and 185 pounds.
Chimaev on UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman: “He’s a good fighter, but don’t have that knockout punch like I have. He doesn’t have wrestling like me,” Chimaev said in a recent interview with Dan Hardy. “What he gonna do? If I do my hard work in the gym, nobody can beat me in the fight.”
Chimaev on UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya: “I think Paulo Costa he was scared in this fight (at UFC 253). I don’t know why people are scared to go in the cage and fight. In the gym, everybody’s tough, like hard sparring, then come to the cage they are being chicken. I don’t understand this.
“(Adesanya’s) good in the standup, but nobody did wrestling against him. Yoel Romero, he only threw three or four punches in the standup (at UFC 248). I can beat this guy. How is he going to come up from under me if I take him down? I don’t think he will. I’m going to beat his face.”
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