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The dust has settled after Khamzat Chimaev’s thrilling UFC 273 victory against Gilbert Burns and “Borz” is already searching for his next opponent.
Chimaev has never been shy about lining up his next opponent and went to work on social media Monday.
“Who is next?” Chimaev tweeted, tagging Colby Covington, Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards — the three fighters above him in the rankings.
Chimaev also hashtagged Abu Dhabi, which is on the schedule for October for UFC 281.
By beating Burns, Chimaev leaped from outside the top 10 to the No. 3 contender and is on the doorstep of a fight for the title. The most realistic fight for Chimaev appears to be against Covington, who has already faced off against Usman twice for the title and lost.
Chimaev was asked about the possibility of facing Covington after his victory and sounded more than game for the challenege.
“I don’t care,” he said. “I said everybody, I’ll fight everybody. These guys that are like ‘Oh I’m number two and Khamzat is number eleven’ and the fight is like nothing good for Gilbert. Who cares about that s–t, you know? We all want to fight each other to make money, you know? We fight for our families. I don’t care who I fight. Do I get money? I get my 50Gs, I knock someone out, I am happy.
“If that guy don’t call the cops and Dana White don’t go to jail, I’d be happy to fight,” Chimaev added. “Come to the fight, I’ll smash his face.”
Dana White Says Chimaev Passed Test
While the fight with Burns was much tighter than most anticipated — including the oddsmakers — Chimaev still came out victorious and survived a slugfest against a very game opponent.
“Think about this: when is the last time you saw a guy come out of nowhere, nobody knows who he is, then fights a couple fights and then fights the number two ranked guy in the world and wins?” UFC president Dana White said. “When you get into the top five in the UFC, it’s no joke, man. Especially in that division. That division is straight killers. Tonight was a big test for him and he passed.”
While he picked up the win, Chimaev learned some lessons during the scrap, which he admitted after the fight.
“I was too excited to knock him out,” Chimaev said. “I was saying to everybody all week I was going to knock him out in one round. I tried to knock him out. That was wrong for me, from the beginning.”
Colby Covington Quiet Since Incident With Jorge Masvidal
Covington is usually not scared to let his feelings fly on social media but “Chaos” has not weighed in on the results of UFC. In fact, Covington has been oddly quiet since his encounter with rival Jorge Masvidal at a Miami restaurant last month, with his only posts being linked to endorsement opportunities.
Covington has talked about wanting to face lightweight veteran Dustin Poirier, although that seems unlikely with the way the welterweight division is currently configured. Chimaev seems like the logical fight to make.
If Covington and Chimaev do end up squaring off, some pre-fight fireworks can be expected, with both men more than willing to go at each other with some verbal sparring.
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