Khamzat Chimaev and his flamboyant character in and outside the octagon is one of the most entertaining things in the promotion currently. With only four fights inside the octagon, the Swedish fighter has achieved more hype than some of the veterans of the sport.
The reason is, he has finished all of his MMA fights and knows how to attract the crowd or at least get noticed by them. For instance, Khamzat called out the Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya after his terrific win at UFC 271 to defend his title against Robert Whittaker.
The Swedish fighter Tweeted to take a dig at Adesanya’s wrestling skills and call him out. He wrote: “Israel Adesanya easy money for me, 0 wrestling. 1 round I’m gonna kill him,”
Chimaev later deleted the tweet but here is a picture of his deleted tweet:
Israel Adesanya says he would love to fight Khamzat Chimaev:
Recently, Israel Adesanya responded to Khamzat‘s call-out. The last stylebender was attending a podcast with True Geordie where he questioned Adesanya about Khamzat’s call-out and what he thinks of him.
Responding to which the Middleweight champion stated: “I don’t have to take him seriously till I have to take him seriously. That’s a guy that I would definitely like to fight. But, only if he does what says to do. Because guess what? He would bring in a lot of eyes.”
“He is on his way. Show me something that would make me notice. His last fight made me notice. That one I was like, I know how good Jingliang is. There was something. That fight I won’t give it away, I like that, I was really impressed with it. So, that’s what made me notice him properly.”
However, Israel feels that it’s still all talk from Khamzat’s side. Chimaev needs to prove himself more by finishing a few other fighters on the roster. Only then Adesanya will think of his call-out in a serious manner.
“But, at the moment it’s still just barking in the wind. I am not saying he can’t beat, he sure can beat a lot of these guys at 185…But, let me see it first and then we’ll talk.” Added Adesanya.
Adesanya doubts if Khamzat can be dominant against middleweights. But, it is to be informed that Khamzat is no rookie in the middleweight division. He has fought two UFC middleweight veterans and has beaten both of them in a dominant manner. It will be interesting to see if he beats more such fighters and one day stands against a true striker of the sport Israel Adesanya.