As the breaks between Khamzat Chimaev’s fights get longer and his weight issues come to light more and more, many fans of combat spots have become worried. Once expected to become a two-division champion in record time now struggles with finding opponents, holding his temper, and making weight.
Khamzat indeed had a meteoric rise inside UFC that can be compared to the likes of Conor McGregor. In fact, the Chechen prodigy was beating up opponents faster and more dominantly than the ‘Mystic Mac’ could ever have even dreamed about. Unfortunately, problems were brewing in the back that would later reveal themselves.
The first instance of Khamzat’s issues came to light during the Li Jingliang fight where he was seemingly missing the weight and had to utilize the ‘Daniel Cormier Towel Strategy‘ to qualify for the fight. His next fight was scheduled to be held against top-ranked Welterweight Gilbert ‘Durinho’ Burns.
Khamzat took his opponent rather lightly and nearly lost the fight. He got another big fight against Nate Diaz and missed the weight by a huge margin settling for Kevin Holland. This time around the entire MMA universe was already aware of the issues that the ‘Wolf’ was going through.
Some recent photos suggested that the rising contender was putting on a lot of muscle leading fans to speculate about a future move to the Middleweight division. Controversial Bantamweight Sean O’Malley decided to chime in on the matter in the latest episode of his very own podcast saying,
“That’d be the smartest f***ing career move for that guy. Because making ’70, he has to be on a strict diet all year round. He can’t f*** around once or twice. I mean, he’s not gonna make the weight. Go up to 185. You can eat. You can be strong; do sh** like that.”
He further added, “Yeah, Khamzat, if he can make the weight. I mean, that’s a big deal; making the weight. Even if he goes up to 185, Who’s up at ’85 that would be fun to watch him fight… ‘Izzy,’ Alex Pereira. Bo Nickal’s up there. I mean, he [Nickal] is still obviously new in his career in the UFC, but that’s interesting.”
Who do you want to see Khamzat Chimaev fight next?
