In the past period, Khamzat Chimaev has been shooting blanks at Israel Adesanya and was trying to provoke him into considering a fight with him. However, Israel Adesanya thinks of Khamzat as not competent enough. In his style, the middleweight champion replied respectfully: “Khamzat Chimaev is a beast, but a beast in his weight division. Let him stay there.”
What downgrades Khazat Chimaev most are the comments that Adesanya made on the ‘Hotboxin with Mike Tyson’ Podcast. He said, quote – “When a dog barks at the moon – that’s normal” – Uh, what a low kick – “But if the moon barks back at the dog – now that’s something.” He continued – “Show me something. Prove your worth, and then, I might consider fighting you”.
Israel Adesanya: Khamzat Chimaev is a beast, but a beast at 170. He better stay there!
The 32-year-old champion Israel Adesanya, or The Last Style-bender has a personal record of 22-1-0. His only loss was a unanimous decision in his fight against Blachowicz. That fight was very controversial and according to the head of UFC, Dana White, the judges misjudged the bout. Dana was furious at the judges for giving two 10-8 rounds to Blachowicz.
In the interview after the event, he said: When I came up in the fight business, a 10-8 round was an a** whupping. You got your a** whupped. You didn’t do s**t in that round and got beat down if it was a 10-8. They gotta stop giving — this 10-8 s**t is out of control right now,”.
Out of Israel’s 22 impressive wins, 15 are with a KO/TKO making him a badass mother*cker. He is known for his exceptional boxing and kickboxing techniques and if one watches his matches, it can be noticed that most of the KOs that he delivers are with knee hits, consecutive unblocked punches, or head kicks. This guy is brutal.
On the other side, Khamzat Chimaev has an emphasized wrestling style and Jiu-Jitsu background same as his fellow compatriot, Khabib Nurmagomedov. It can be straightforwardly said that once on the ground Khamzat Chimaev will have an edge over his opponent. His usual fighting technique is – bring your opponent to the ground as soon as possible.
And lastly, Chimaev might be able to prove himself now. He might be able to shut Israel Adesanya’s mouth once and for all. He has a chance if he can finish his challenger Gilbert Burns fast. Then if Israel Adesanya tries to avoid the fight, it will look like a coward move which will win more points for Khamzat and will make people take his side.
If we look at the situation objectively, the option where Khamzat Chimaev exits the UFC 273 bout as a winner is a very plausible situation. He has a winning streak of 10-0-0, which makes him very confident in his fighting style. There has been no fighter in the UFC that was able to defeat him until now.
What we can do at the moment is watch the great show of the UFC 273 and hope for a curveball that will bring even more exciting fights in the next event.
That being said, Adesanya, we hope you sleep well since after this event your biggest nightmare so far might be coming.
