If you, like many MMA fans, are wondering what’s next for upstart welterweight Khamzat Chimaev, fear not. Chael Sonnen’s here to iron out the details. With the Chechen fighter leapfrogging the competition to attain the no. 10 ranked spot in the welterweight division, some are already calling for him to face reigning champion Kamaru Usman.
Sonnen took to his YouTube channel to shoot that particular idea down. “If you’re wrong on Chimaev, and you burn him too soon, what do you do then?
Chael Sonnen Breaks Down Khamzat Chimaev’s Prospects
Do you throw him back in the spot he is now, which is a potential contender — except now you don’t have the same excitement or enthusiasm because you already put him in for the belt and he finished second?
You’ve got to be careful with how you play it. Most guys, you gotta take what you can get when you can get it. If you try to play this build game, you’re gonna be broke and they’re gonna be released. It doesn’t work.
But Chimaev is one of those exceptions, so what do you do with him? If he’s good enough to get the belt right now, how does it behoove you for him to have the belt?
He’s got plenty of needles to move on the way to the top, and the current guy at the top is the No. 1 pound-for-pound in the world. Why am I gonna burn one of them?”
Of course, shooting straight for the title is an unlikely prospect for any fresh fighter. There are plenty of spots between 10 and the belt, including Colby Covington, who just lost a title challenge against Usman. There’s also Gilbert Burns, who is attempting to build his way back up to another title shot, but Sonnen sees Burns vs Chimaev as a disservice to the long-standing welterweight.
““This is no, Gilbert Burns,” Sonnen explained. “No [for] Gilbert Burns and Chimaev. If you hear that anywhere, do not support it. Do not get behind that. Do not retweet it. Do not post it. Kill it. You owe that to Burns.”
Who should fight Chimaev, then, Chael? ““Neil Magny should get this fight.
Magny should get this fight for one reason and that’s because he wants it. Other guys have been cleared to say they’ll take it, but none of them have said they want it — and I do mean none. Neil Magny not only said he wanted it, but he laid out a case as to why he should get it. That’s a very different callout.
Neil Magny had a good one. ‘Not only was I offered Chimaev, I accepted it. That fight got scrapped but I was the guy a year ago. I’m here right now, he says he wants a ranked guy, put me in,’ it’s very different. Neil should, in my opinion, should get the fight.”
Do you think Khamzat deserves a straight title shot, or should he take on Neil Magny first? Let us know in the comments.
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