Khamzat Chimaev – A Special Kind of Athlete

What started off as just a ‘hype train’ with everyone expecting a derailment at some point, has instead gained thousands more passengers as everyone is now coming to terms with the fact that Khamzat Chimaev might just be one of the most special athletes in MMA.

As early as it may be to start making these claims, how can you blame anyone for getting carried away when it comes to speaking about ‘Borz’? Does he have the potential to be one of the most well rounded fighters in the UFC? I think so.

When the Chechen-born fighter burst onto the scene, comparisons were drawn to Khabib Nurmagomedov, due to his dominant wrestling-heavy approach. However, Chimaev has already proved throughout his three-year professional career that he is more than just a wrestler. He has accumulated six TKO/KO’s in 10 fights, making him truly terrifying wherever the fight goes.

If you don’t take my word for it, take the word of his famed training partner, Alexander Gustafsson, who said in an interview in 2019 that he was one of the best fighters he’s ever trained with. That’s ‘The Mauler’ who has competed at the top of the Light Heavyweight division for the past nine years.

In his 10 professional fights, ‘Borz’ has shown why he is one of the most avoided fighters in Mixed Martial Arts. I can imagine training for a fight with Chimaev would be like training to beat the chess champion, when the champion knows every move in the book.

His wrestling is up there with the elites, his striking is ferocious and explosive and best of all, he is good on the mic. On the lead up to his most recent fight and victory over Li Jingliang, he was brutally honest when he was told by one extremely brave reporter “you talk a lot”. Khamzat replied: “I don’t talk a lot, you talk a lot brother. People ask me and I answer, that’s not talk a lot. If you don’t ask me, I’m never gonna talk about it.” I appreciated this side of Khamzat as over his previous three UFC fights, he has showed that he can sell a fight by talking about his skills and his ‘smesh’ mentality, but this time, he revealed the focussed and head-down side of his personality that any future champ needs.

Back to his extremely dominant Saturday night win, Chimaev showcased why he’s not just hyped up, and instead showed why he is touted by many as a future Welterweight Champion. I know it’s extremely early in a fighter’s career to be so confident of the impending dominance he could have, but why not? What more does he need to show for his hype train to turn into a victory parade bus?

I believe ‘The Leech’ was the perfect next opponent for the Swede as he was a definite jump in class from his previous opponents, but isn’t in the upper echelon of UFC Welterweights. In his last outing, he starched former Welterweight contender, Santiago Ponzinibbio, staking a claim for a higher level fight. Someone should’ve told ‘The Leech’ to be careful what you wish for, as he did get it. Chimaev has shown that he is not just a ‘hype train’ merchant, and is now ready for a contender fight against a top 5 opponent.

So who could be next for Khamzat?

Well, funnily enough, Jack Hermansson is next up. The two Scandinavians are scheduled to face off outside the Octagon, and no, it’s not an ‘anytime anywhere’ type fight, it’s a freestyle wrestling match at Bulldog Fight Night 9. Chimaev, who contracted COVID-19 at the start of the year, briefly announced his retirement from MMA as he was facing the long-standing effects of COVID-19, preventing him from training and competing. Luckily for absolutely everyone involved, he decided that was just a decision made emotionally and began getting treatment for the lingering issues. The decision to compete in grappling matches is to fill his schedule and keep him active, which I’m absolutely all for, as long as we get to see the star performing one way or another, I and hundreds of thousands of Khamzat fans will be happy.

Having said all that, there is one UFC fighter who isn’t running from the oncoming train, and instead, is prepared to take it head on. That man is UFC veteran, Neil Magny. The American told MMAJunkie that after the fight on Saturday night, he was casually going about his day when he was seeing messages stating no one wants to fight Khamzat. He said: “I’m sitting here reading these comments over and over again, like, ‘what, no way. I wanted to fight that guy a year ago.’ Nothing has changed today. He did come back and did look impressive but for me it adds fuel to the fire, it makes me want to fight him more than I did last year.”

As much as this fight makes a lot of sense from a matchmaking perspective as they’re both tightly ranked in the top 10, I believe Chimaev dispatches Magny quite comfortably. I would love to see how Chimaev would perform against the upper echelon of Welterweights such as Gilbert Burns or Vicente Luque. Burns is possibly looking at one more big win before he gets a chance at the title again, and what better way to do it than beating the consensus scariest man in the promotion?