Khamzat Chimaev says he has been guaranteed a shot at middleweight gold ahead of UFC 297 later this month.
While Chimaev’s career may not have panned out exactly how man saw, the 29-year-old is still undefeated and Is not far off getting his shot at UFC gold. For a while, Chimaev winning the welterweight title, but weight issues has forced ‘Borz’ to seek for a title at 185lbs.
That shot may come against the reigning middleweight champion, Strickland, who Chimaev seems confident of beating.
Chimaev is undoubtably physically talented but also sees his faith as a massive part of his success. In fact, Chimaev claims that those who compete against Muslim fighters should ‘be afraid’.
“I don’t know, man,” Khamzat Chimaev said during a recent interview with Mohammed Hijab. “He has to be afraid. Inshallah we fight with everyone, so the fights in the cage is not that big thing. If we can make some people happy who is going through hard times and all Muslims watching us and me and Khabib, all the Muslim fighters, Belal, we know all of the kids, our kids they’re watching, they want to be like us. (H/T MiddleEasy)
“They [fighters competing against Muslims] should be afraid of us,” Chimaev continued. “We fight not just for us like they do, we fight for all Muslims.”
Khamzat Chimaev confident of title shot being next
The middleweight divison is wide open at the moment as there is several fighters who could realistically end up as champion by 2024. However, Chimaev sees only himself being in that discussion and is suyre that he will fight for, and win, UFC gold next.
“A hundred percent,” Chimaev said. “He [Sean Strickland] has good fighter who he’s fighting with, Du Plessis, and if he wins against this guy for sure we’re gonna fight 100 percent. They promised for me that fight, so now we’re gonna wait who’s winning the fight and then take the belt.”
Strickland and Du Plessis are set to square-off in the main event of UFC 297 on January 21 and settle their bubbling feud.
Who wins, Sean Strickland or Khamzat Chimaev?