Jorge Masvidal believes Khamzat Chimaev is playing with fire in the middleweight division.
‘Borz’ stormed into the UFC in 2020 and rattled off three-straight victories in the span of eight weeks. Largely competing in the welterweight division, Chimaev has repeatedly ragdolled opponents with Gilbert Burns being the one glaring exception. Even then, ‘Borz’ came out on top via unanimous decision, keeping his undefeated record intact and establishing himself as a legit title contender inside the Octagon.
However, things went way off course ahead of his previously scheduled main event matchup with veteran fan favorite Nate Diaz when Chimaev stepped on the scale eight-pounds over the limit for their welterweight scrap. The blunder ultimately led to the UFC forcing Chimaev to make the move to middleweight.
Thus far, Chimaev has maintained his status as a legitimate title contender after securing a decision victory over former welterweight world champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, though the bout did come with a bit of adversity and a pinch of controversy. Not to mention the fact that the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ stepped into the bout on less than two weeks’ notice.
Sharing his take on Khazmat Chimaev’s move to middleweight, former welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal suggested that the Chechen will find a lot more dangerous men to contend with than he would at welterweight.
“You put him in there with a lot of these [middleweights] I think they’ll f*cking hurt him,” Masvidal said in an interview with MMA Mania.
‘Gamebred’ bumped into Kamaru Usman at a nightclub hours before he stepped up to fight khamzat chimaev
Despite moving up a weight class on short notice, Kamaru Usman looked undeniably impressive in his showing against Khamzat Chimaev, even winning the bout in the eyes of many.
As it turns out, Usman was out clubbing mere hours before the announcement was made that he would be stepping into the UFC 294 co-main event, leaving many to wonder how things may have played out had Usman been given a full fight camp to prepare.
“Funny story, right before he took that fight, hasn’t happened too often, but I saw Kamaru Usman out. It was the craziest stuff ever,” Masvidal said. “I was walking into this establishment, I had my shades on and somebody goes, ‘Jorge Masvidal, what’s up?’ I go, ‘Man, that voice sounds f*cking familiar.’ I turned around, this is at 4:30 in the f*cking morning, bro. It’s Usman’s ass and he’s got glasses too. What the f*ck?
“I look, I must have lost my f*cking mind,” he continues. “I lift them (my glasses) up and I go, ‘Usman?!’ and he goes, ‘What’s up, Masvidal?!’ This motherf*cker, bro. That was literally the day before he got the announcement for the fight. So I just want to say if that guy has like five-six weeks to prepare for Chimaev, he takes him out. Guaranteed. He knocks his a** dead.”