Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight up-and-comer Khamzat Chimaev, who moonlights as a middleweight prospect, was showing off in front of his posse at the UFC host hotel this week in advance of the UFC Vegas 11 event on Sat. night (Sept. 19) at APEX.
I guess he wanted to pull a Khabib-Lobov and send opponent Gerald Meerschaert a message.
“He was here – I met him,” Chimaev told reporters during Wednesday’s media day. “I said he speak too much, he talk too much in the media. He disrespected me. He think I didn’t like that, but I said to him you like to talk too much. He said, ‘Yeah,’ I said I’m going to smash your face, chicken. He said nothing.”
Meerschaert remains unimpressed, probably because “Borz” is known for his tall tales.
“We passed each other in the hallway earlier today – it was pretty quick,” Meerschaert said. “He tried, I think he was trying to talk trash to me. He just kept saying, ‘don’t talk too much’ and I was kind of like ‘Okay, we’re fighting Saturday, we’re not going to do anything now’ because I want to make money. I don’t know what his deal is. Not only that, but I don’t think it’s a very cool thing to flex when you’ve got a bunch of your friends with you and stuff. Like I had one guy with me, he had a bunch of guys with him. Dude, I get it. You don’t have to like me, I don’t have to like you, but let’s just save it for the cage.”
Chimaev (8-0) has only been with the promotion since last July and dazzled the UFC brass by scoring consecutive finishes within a span of 10 days. In fact, UFC President Dana White already promised him a Demian Maia fight with a victory over Meerschaert (31-13).
To see who else is fighting at UFC Vegas 11 click here.