Moving Goalposts: Khamzat Chimaev

Rise

In terms of public perception, Khamzat Chimaev has become a polarizing figure in the UFC.  He blazed onto the scene during the COVID-19 pandemic, easily dispatching his initial opponents.  Although many downplayed his level of competition, he did score first round finishes over Gerald Meerschaert and Li Jingliang.  Fans quickly began comparing his rise to that of Khabib Nurmagomedov, due to his relentless wrestling style.           

                                                                                                                               

Image – Las Vegas Review 

                                                                                                                                                                                       Photo – Bleacher Report                 

Adversity

Chimaev’s fight against Gilbert Burns was a major step up in competition.  He won the back and forth war in a thrilling fight.  Despite the victory, critics flagged several worrying takeaways from the fight.  First, Khamzat appeared somewhat fatigued after the first round.  In addition, his striking defense seemed subpar at times in the fight.  

Nonetheless, the win set Chimaev up for another high-profile welterweight fight.  After the UFC initially scheduled him to fight Nate Diaz, Chimaev shockingly missed weight.  The promotion  had to shuffle the card, matching him up against Kevin Holland instead.  This weight miss largely turned the community against him, as fans and fighters alike questioned Chimaev’s professionalism.  Chimaev proceeded to dominate Holland, but the negative sentiment from this event remained.

Middleweight

Since that weight miss, Chimaev has remained at the middleweight division.  Although originally scheduled to fight Paulo Costa next, he instead faced former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman on short notice.  On one hand, he completely dominated Usman on the ground in the first round.  Usman, however, rallied in the second and third to make the fight competitive.  Again, fans criticized Chimaev’s waning pace in the later rounds.  The fact that Usman moved up a weight division on short notice also fueled criticism.  The community questioned whether he could impose his style on the UFC’s top middleweights.

In his last fight, Chimaev quieted many of his doubters with a first round finish against Robert Whittaker.  He took Whittaker down with ease, despite Whittaker’s proven takedown defense.  After scoring a first round submission, fans are now clamoring for Chimaev to fight the champion, Dricus Du Plessis.

Image – MMA Fighting

Title

While Chimaev has largely turned around his reputation, some questions still remain.  While the Whittaker finish is impressive, it didn’t require Chimaev to fight in the championship rounds.  It also featured almost no striking exchanges.  As such, these perceived weaknesses in his game may still hinder him moving forward.  On the other hand, Chimaev has shown that he can take down even the best wrestlers in the division.  Ultimately, even with these questions, Khamzat Chimaev has undoubtedly proven to be a dangerous middleweight title contender.