Khamzat Chimaev is the hotbed of discussion around the Mixed Martial Arts community. He came to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a relatively unknown commodity. The 27-year old turned the MMA world upside down and fought two times within a week. He breezed through his first two opponents and knocked out Gerald Meerschaert in 12 seconds with a single punch.
Since then, Chimaev’s momentum halted big time as the Chechen fighter took around one and a half years to recover from COVID-19. He contemplated retirement during that period. But he made full recovery since then and made short work of Li Jingliang in his comeback fight on UFC 267. Since then Chimaev has pretty much called out every one of significance but nobody seemed to respond. The UFC president Dana White has now shared what is going on behind the scenes.
Who is next @danawhite ?
— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) November 19, 2021
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Dana White has championed Khamzat Chimaev since his two fights in the UFC Fight Island. White has always been a fan of fighters who stay active and don’t turn down fights. He always gives credit to the likes of Conor McGregor and Kevin Holland for never turning down a fight. Hence a fighter of Chimaev’s mould is in Dana White’s wheelhouse. But according to the president himself, no one is willing to fight Chimaev.
‘Khamzat Chimaev is one of the baddest dudes’
Chimaev has been extremely active in social media recently. He has been calling out the likes of Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz and Colby Covington. But none of them has shown any sort of interest in fighting Khamzat. He even called out Daniel Cormier for a wrestling match. The welterweight fighter recently wrestled his teammate Jack Hermansson and won the fight by outpointing him.
Despite the wrestling match, fans want to know when the fighter will make his return to the octagon. Dana White has answered the question on ‘The Jim Rome Podcast‘. During that, he gave immense credit to the fighter and called him one the ‘baddest dudes’ that he had ever come across.
“Nobody wants to fight this guy, Everybody wants to get out on social media and say this or say that. But when it really comes down to it, nobody’s trying to fight Khamzat Chimaev. I don’t blame them.” said the UFC president. Recently it was reported that Gilbert Burns or Neil Magney would be the possible next match-up for Khamzat. When asked if the fighters are avoiding Chimaev or not, Dana White replied with “yes,100 per cent”