Khamzat Chimaev explains why he would rather train with Robert Whittaker than fight him
Khamzat Chimaev isn’t too interested in fighting former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker anytime soon.
Chimaev was supposed to headline UC 279 against Nate Diaz at welterweight but at weigh-ins he was 7.5lbs overweight and Diaz’s team made it known they wouldn’t take the fight. After some scrambling from the UFC, the promotion ended up booking Chimaev against Kevin Holland who he submitted in the first round.
Although the fight was at a 180lbs catchweight, Chimaev has said he still wants to fight at welterweight although Dana White said he wants him to move up to middleweight. If he moves up, one bout that could make sense is Robert Whittaker, but for Chimaev, he says he is a big fan of Whittaker and is a good guy and would rather fight a bad guy.
“I like that guy, so I don’t want to fight good guys. I need some bad guys, so I want to fight some bad guy, you know? And don’t feel sorry for that. I want to train with that guy. He’s really good, like one of the best guys in the world,” Chimaev said after UFC 279. “I was watching his fight. … I’m a big fan, so I watch all things. I watch how he trains, and all these things. A lot of guys want to fight me, so Robert never said something bad about me. There’s a lot of guys talking sh*t about me. I’m gonna go take their heads off, you know? So, we’ll see.”
As of right now, it’s uncertain when Chimaev will return or who he will face. But, for Chimaev, he says it will depend on his coach and he’s open to fighting at any weight class.
“I’m going to go back and listen to my coach,” Chimaev said. “If he says we go to 170, we go 170. If he says we go heavyweight, we go heavyweight. I don’t care. I do my training camp how he said. We train hard, never stop. … I have nothing to do. Only gym is my life.”
