Khamzat Chimaev wants to fight Alex Pereira in Brazil and then Colby Covington in London.
Khamzat Chimaev wants to fight Alex Pereira and Colby Covington in back-to-back fights just two months apart.
The wildman from Chechnya who fights out of Stockholm, Sweden revealed in a recent interview with MMA Fighting that he spoke with UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby about fighting Pereira in Brazil and then Covington in London.
‘Borz’ claims Shelby gave both matchups the green light but that Covington, the former interim welterweight champion, must come before Pereira, the newly-crowned middleweight king.
“Before, I was thinking if Kamaru Usman wins his fight, I will fight with him next,” Chimaev told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in a recent interview (h/t MMA Fighting). “But he lost. And I was thinking if [Israel] Adesanya won his fight, who’s he going to fight? There’s only me. And he lost as well. Now [Pereira and Adesanya] want to rematch in March, I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“So I said to Sean Shelby and Dana as well, I’m ready for Pereira in Brazil. Directly after that, March, if Colby wants to fight, I’d take my title and I’d go down to 170 and fight Colby as well.”
He continued: “Sean Shelby, I spoke with him [about Pereira] and he said first, ‘Yeah, let’s go brother, we’ll do it’. Then I don’t know what’s happening. He said, ‘OK brother, we’ll go Colby first.’ So maybe Colby, for me it doesn’t matter. Colby isn’t talking about the fight or about me, so you know how Colby is doing when he fights somebody, he doesn’t stop talking, so I don’t know. We will see.”
Khamzat (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) last fought at UFC 279 where he submitted Kevin Holland in a catchweight bout at 180 pounds. He is currently #3 in the UFC welterweight rankings and has only been taken to a decision once, finishing all but two of his UFC opponents in the first round.