Khamzat Chimaev is already planning his next three fights despite the fact he is currently booked to face Gerald Meerschaert at middleweight on the undercard of Colby Covington vs. Tyron Woodley in just 10 days’ time.
Chimaev took to social media earlier today. The undefeated Russian claimed he respects his September 19 opponent but that didn’t stop him calling for fights against Demian Maia and the Diaz brothers, he wrote.
“Thanks for my opponent for taking this fight I respect him for that. InshAllah if I will defeat my next opponent Dana White please I can fight Maia , Nate Diaz and Nick Diaz back to back same night or every week . Easiest money welterweight division.”
A fight between Chimaev and Maia seems to have been booked for an upcoming ‘Fight Island’ card. Meerschaert has openly admitted he feels disrespected by the UFC and his opponent who are both clearly overlooking him.
“Yeah, I keep saying it every time someone asks me,” Meerschaert explained. “I find it disrespectful. I find it disrespectful that the promotion can just line this up and put it out there in public. And I think it’s disrespectful that (Khamzat) Chimaev is like completely ok with like, ‘Ok, just line this up, I’ll beat him, I don’t got to cut a lot of weight and then I’ll go fight somebody else.”
“So far in the UFC, you’ve fought a lightweight who came up to welterweight (McKee) and didn’t look great. And then you fought a middleweight (Phillips) who had a rough weight cut and really isn’t that dangerous on the ground. He’s only dangerous if you stand and bang with him. And now you’re gonna fight a middleweight who’s gonna be bigger, stronger, and my techniques going to be way better in the grappling department. So, to think that you start setting up fights afterwards against a guy who. by the way, I’m tied with for the most submissions in the middleweight division, if it’s not disrespectful then I don’t know what is.”
Do you think Khamzat Chimaev is making a mistake by overlooking Gerald Meerschaert?