Jon Jones is a big-money fight for many, but more importantly, he is a legacy fight. As of now, the two serious considerations for his next fight are Tom Aspinall, the interim heavyweight champion, and Stipe Miocic, the former heavyweight champion.
But Khamzat Chimaev, a middleweight contender, wants to be added to the mix. Chimaev, although a formidable fighter, is a lot less accomplished than Jones and is significantly inferior in size.
However, that is Khamzat Chimaev for you – young, confident, and fearless. But why would he want someone multiple weight classes above him? What is his motivation behind wanting ‘Bones’?
Khamzat Chimaev vs. Jon Jones – But why?
Khamzat Chimaev is an ambitious fighter, to say the least. He considers Jon Jones his dream fighter because he considers the heavyweight champion, “The best fighter in the world right now.”
Moreover, in the past, his training partner, Alexander Gustafsson has fought Jones twice. While the first bout was quite a close one, Jones won the second one handily.
Reflecting on this, he asserted that since his training partner has fought him, it is now his chance to do so:
“He has fought two times, with my training partner Alexander Gustafsson. For sure, I want to fight with this guy. It will be a big history if we fight. Since Alex gave him a tough fight, maybe my time to fight him.”
Khamzat Chimaev has never shied away from giving Jones the respect he deserves. In fact, Jones may be the only active fighter on Chimaev’s radar that he speaks of in this regard. That is because Jones was a huge influence on him during his younger days. He even opened up about it once.
Khamzat Chimaev draws inspiration from Jon Jones
For Khamzat Chimaev, Jon Jones is a big inspiration. After all, he is primarily a wrestler and Jones has proven to be a formidable wrestler. During his come-up, before he was in the UFC, he used to closely examine Jones and adapt certain techniques he deemed useful. In an interview, he did not shy away from admitting it and stated:
“I take from Jon Jones, from Alex, I look at everything that they have from MMA.”
Presently, the middleweight division is the hunting ground for ‘The Wolf.’ He could be in line to fight for the title against the winner of UFC 297. But somewhere down the line, if the opportunity presents itself, he might just jump up and face Jones in the Octagon.
