Khamzat Chimaev has fired back at Jorge Masvidal for his criticism of the rising prospect.
Coming off his toughest test against former title challenger Gilbert Burns, Chimaev faced heat from Masvidal, who bashed him for the close-fought win. “Borz” continued his unbeaten run in the sport but went the full distance for the first time in April at UFC 273.
Jorge Masvidal takes aim at Khamzat Chimaev
In an interview with MMA Fighting ahead of his promotion’s iKON FC 4 event on Friday, “Gamebred” bashed Chimaev stating he had not yet proven his worth.
“That was supposed to be his coming out party and it didn’t go according to plan,” Masvidal told MMA Fighting. “A lot of people felt Gilbert won that fight — a lot of people still think Gilbert won that fight.“
“I don’t really think Khamzat is as good as they say he is. I’m more of a see then believe [guy] and I haven’t seen anything that makes me a believer in this guy yet. I, personally, would love to break his face. Once he starts selling pay-per-views and s*** like that, I wouldn’t mind breaking his f****** face.”
Masvidal went a step further and backed Nate Diaz to finish Chimaev in their upcoming bout.
“I think Khamzat probably wins, but I can see Nate putting him away in rounds four or five because Khamzat doesn’t have that gas tank. He doesn’t have that experience, and I think he gets too in the moment where he’s wasting energy doing stupid s***.“
“Nate is going to conserve all of that energy and get in his face when it counts. I think Khamzat should win, but I won’t be surprised if Nate stops his ass.”
Chimaev Fires Back at Masvidal
After coming across his fellow welterweight’s comments, Chimaev took to Twitter to deliver a fiery response. He posted snaps from Masvidal’s knockout loss to Kamaru Usman in April last year with the caption: “Wake up buddy @GamebredFighter.”
Wake up buddy @GamebredFighter
pic.twitter.com/CrpMAmlNbn
— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) August 5, 2022
Chimaev is set to face Diaz in the main event of UFC 279 on Sep. 10.