Former UFC welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev, who was forced to move up to 185 pounds after struggling to maintain his weight, is unhappy with UFC CEO Dana White’s “bullsh*t” decision to break his promise and not award “Borz” the next crack at the middleweight crown.
Ex-Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson is tired of Khamzat Chimaev’s whining.
“He hasn’t fought one contender at 185 pounds and he’s over here saying he deserves a title shot,” Thomson said on his “Weighing In” podcast. “Give me somebody in the Top 5. You have a dominant performance and you look good at 185 pounds against someone in the Top 5; I’ll say, ‘Go right ahead and give him a title shot.’ But right now, after listening to his interviews and all this, he sounds like a crybaby. ‘I was promised this! I was promised that!’ Since when does Dana give a sh*t what he’s promised? We’ve seen before, he’s promised fighters a lot. Look, you didn’t have a great performance against Kamaru Usman … not a good look.”
Undefeated middleweight prospect Bo Nickal echoed that sentiment.
“I would guess that they will do [Israel] Adasanya [next], but they’re going to give Khamzat a title shot at some point,” Nickal said on his YouTube channel. “I don’t think that he’s going to have to fight again until he gets a title shot. Do I think he deserves that? No. I don’t think he’s fought a single ‘85er. He’s fought less ‘85ers than me, and my guys aren’t even on the roster anymore.”
The 29 year-old Khamzat Chimaev (13-0) is coming off a majority decision win over former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, a short-notice fight that seemed to do more harm than good, at least in terms of his place in the middleweight pecking order. It would be hard to put “Borz” above Israel Adesanya or Sean Strickland when it comes to getting the first crack at newly-crowned division champion, Dricus Du Plessis.
Maybe matchmakers can make that decision in time for UFC 300 in April.