Josh Thomson thinks Khamzat Chimaev could rely on his recklessness against Robert Whittaker.
Speaking on his Weighing In podcast with John McCarthy, “The Punk” said he is not ruling out the fact that “Borz” could snag the victory over “The Reaper” in the early rounds with his aggressiveness.
“Let me preface this by saying this, in the first round, two rounds, I’m going to lean a little bit more towards Chimaev but I’m not putting Whittaker out of it either cuz Chimaev fights very careless. He fights so reckless. It’s very entertaining for the fans, I’m not knocking that cause I enjoy it,” Thomson assessed.
“When I know he’s got a fight coming up, I’m tuning in because I enjoy watching him fight. There’s something about him that makes people want to watch him fight. It’s his aggressiveness, his carelessness, his recklessness, all those things. The way he talks trash, very Khabibish… he’s fun to watch him fight,” he added.
Something’s wrong with Khamzat Chimaev’s lungs
On the flip side, Thomson also speculated that Khamzat Chimaev has been dealing with some major issues regarding his lungs since he had covid. That said, “The Punk” thinks Whittaker would own “Borz” if the fight reaches later rounds.
“I just don’t believe that he has been the same since he had covid. His lungs, I think are f**ked up. I think his conditioning of cardio, sure he’s been fighting at a good pace but there’s no way a guy coming from 170, Kamaru Usman should have came up and given you that type of fight in the third round, and won the third round when you had a full camp,” Thomson said of Chimaev.
“I just believe there’s some underlying issues that he just hasn’t been able to figure out so hopefully he gets it figured out but if this fight goes into the third, fourth and fifth, I think it’s going to be all Rob Whittaker,” he continued.
Both Whittaker and Chimaev are coming off impressive wins. “The Reaper” pulled off a dominant decision win over Paulo Costa at UFC 298, while Khamzat Chimaev snatched a majority decision over Kamaru Usman at UFC 294.
The pair will headline UFC on ABC 6 in Saudi on June 22.
Watch Thomson’s full podcast episode below: