Khamzat Chimaev looks on after his welterweight fight.
UFC star Khamzat Chimaev received a response to his recent callout of a former middleweight champion.
Top-ranked welterweight contender Chimaev has been out of action since taking on Kevin Holland at UFC 279 last September. He was scheduled to compete against Nate Diaz in a welterweight bout but needed to shuffle opponents after coming in overweight. ‘Borz’ turned in another phenomenal performance and earned a first-round finish over Holland without absorbing a single significant strike, a feat he achieved for the fourth time in his UFC career.
Following the outcome, Chimaev’s future at 170 pounds was brought into question. Company president Dana White assured he would not force Chimaev to change weight classes based on the incident. However, a lack of opponents turned the undefeated Chechen-born Swede’s attention to the middleweight division.
Chimaev expressed his interest in moving up a division to face former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker out of frustrations in getting a fight at welterweight.
“Good guy vs bad guy let’s make it happen,” wrote Chimaev in an Instagram post earlier today. “Only respect [Robert Whittaker].”
Whittaker Responds to Chimaev’s Callout
In an interview with Submission Radio, Whittaker shared his thoughts on the prospect of sharing the cage with Chimaev. Although the fight is not on the table yet, ‘Bobby Knuckles’ is down for a good scrap.
“Yeah, if it’s a fight that gets presented to me, it is what it is,” said Whittaker. “I think it’d be a good fight. I think it’d be a hard fight. He’s a phenomenal fighter. He has a lot of strengths. I think I have a lot of strengths. I’m a hard fight for him just the same.
“I’m quite good with my hands, can stuff a lot of takedowns, it’s hard to hold me down as I’m squirmy,” he continued. “Yeah, it will be an interesting fight. That’ll be a show stopper for sure. I’m sure it will get a lot of people interested and excited.”
Whittaker believes the fight does not make sense per the rankings given that the two are ranked contenders in different divisions. He argued the star power combined with potential opportunities are the elements that might bring the bout together.
“He’s a welterweight,” added Whittaker. “The reason why it would be a fight that’s worth making is because he’s riding the hype train and because UFC want to bring this guy, who’s the boogeyman to a lot of guys, up in the ranks.
“They want him to fight me at the top of the chain so that it opens the door to whoever wins and they jump behind. That’s the only reason it makes sense.”
Chimaev Initially Did Not Want To Fight Whittaker
Whittaker and Chimaev have remained largely respectful of each other. During the build-up to UFC 279, Chimaev shot down the idea of fighting Whittaker due to the respect he had for the latter.
“I like that guy so, I don’t want to fight the good guys, you know?” Chimaev said (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “I need some bad guy, so I want to fight some bad guy, you know, and don’t feel sorry for that. I want to train with that guy, he’s really good like, you know, one of the best guys in the world.”