Khamzat Chimaev is currently ranked No. 3 at 185 pounds and widely-expected to earn the next crack at defending middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, assuming “Borz” can make it to fight night without another mysterious medical malady.
Don’t worry, matchmakers have a backup plan.
Chimaev’s “special” rise to the top, which included a pit stop at 170 pounds, came with a considerable amount of hype, to the point where fight fans were calling for a potential title shot after just two fights under the UFC banner.
Former UFC lightweight, Josh Thomson, wants to pump the brakes.
“How bad is he … or is he good? We’re gonna find out when he fights DDP,” Thomson said on We Want Picks. “I’ve said this for the longest time, the sample size is not big enough for me with Chimaev. It’s just not big enough. Are we giving him too much credit? Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, he’s muslim, he’s got the beard, he can wrestle.’ Are we giving him the Khabib credit? No one is like Khabib [Nurmagomedov], nobody is like Islam [Makhachev]. We associate the two things, they are not the same. Khabib didn’t get tired. Is [Chimaev] as good as we think? Or we getting a fraud check here with DDP?”
Thomson argues the 31 year-old Chimaev (14-0) has been able to capitalize on favorable circumstances, like a washed-up Gilbert Burns, hot-and-cold Kevin Holland, short-notice Kamaru Usman, and even the grill-challenged Robert Whittaker, who already had existing teeth issues.
“He’s fantastic when he’s fresh, but we’ve seen him wilt in rounds two and rounds three,” Thomson continued. “He got dropped by Gilbert Burns [at UFC 273] and look at Gilbert since they fought, he can’t seem to buy a win right now. So is he as bad or is he as good as people wanna make him? I don’t think he’s as good as people want him to be. He’s fantastic when he’s the hammer, I’m not denying that, but what is he like when ‘boom’ all of the sudden he gets cracked? Is Chimaev that guy, does he fold? Does he break? I’m leaning more towards he does.”
We’ll find out at UFC 319 this summer in Chicago.
