The combat sports world can be brutal not just physically but emotionally as well sometimes. It wasn’t too long ago that Khamzat Chimaev was asked if he wanted to face top middleweight, Robert Whittaker. ‘Borz’ denied the fight expressing his admiration towards the Australian back then but now the fight might be actually happening.
In a recent interview, Chimaev had this to say,
“I think I will fight Robert Whittaker. He’s got no opponent, Paulo Costa ran away after talking that much about me and Robert. I want this fight, I like him as a human being. He’s a solid guy, doesn’t trash talk, doesn’t cross any lines. We are going to have fun at the press conference, and fight each other.”
Robert was initially planning to face either the champ or the top contender, “I do believe that I use mixed martial arts better than both of those guys. I do believe I can utilize my wrestling and grappling to make it a hellish match for both of them.”
Middleweight champ Alex Pereira was also eyeing a fight against Bobby Knuckles, “I won’t do anything to hurt Adesanya’s plans and avoid this fight. If that’s what he wants, we’ll fight. If for some reason he doesn’t want to fight me, that makes no difference to me, it’ll be Whittaker instead. And if Whittaker doesn’t want it, there are several others that do.”
How did the Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev fight come to be?
Earlier, the Whittaker vs Costa fight was scheduled to take place on UFC 284 at the home ground of Robert. But Paulo raised contract negotiation issues and pulled out from the fight. He also called out Chimaev but that fight never got made. ‘Borz’ has been struggling to land a bout ever since he won against Kevin Holland so this fight makes a lot of sense.
Who do you favor in the Chimaev vs Whittaker fight?
