Robert Whittaker accepts Khamzat Chimaev’s offer to train with him, believes they can ‘muck on a lot of people’
Robert Whittaker is open to training with Khamzat Chimaev.
After Chimaev submitted Kevin Holland at UFC 279, he was asked about a move to middleweight and who he may fight. He made it known there is one person he doesn’t want to fight in Robert Whittaker as he says he doesn’t want to fight nice guys as he only wants to beat up bad guys and would rather train with him.
“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.”
Now, after being asked about Chimaev’s comments, Whittaker says he is open to training with Chimaev and he believes the two can help each other out.
“I heard what Khamzat said about wanting to fight bad guys and I can get behind that,” Whittaker said to Sirius XM. “If he wants to train together, I want to train together and we can go hunt bad guys together. I think it will be a lot of fun, and we can run a muck on a lot of people.”
Whether or not Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev will actually train with one another is to be seen. However, if they do, there’s no question they will help each other but they could soon be in the same weight class. Even with that, Whittaker is excited to see Chimaev at 185lbs and has a few names in mind for a possible next opponent.
“It’s hard, but I think stylistically he handles a lot of the guys in the division. I would actually love to see Chimaev fight Pereira. I think that’s a great fight for him, and I think it will open the eyes to see what Pereira can do,” Whittaker added. “I’d like to see Chimaev fight Israel, just because, stylistically, there are so many different variables in play that it makes it interesting for me. Plus, I’ll be able to see my new friend Chimaev on two guys that I want to beat up.”
