Sidekick Boxing

Israel Adesanya offers his respect to rising contender Khamzat Chimaev

Israel Adesanya offered his respect to Khamzat Chimaev. The former champion has been impressed by Chimaev for a while now and the surging middleweight even got on his radar, to an extent, when Chimaev was still competing at welterweight. 

During a recent interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, Adesanya covered several subjects ahead of his looming UFC Fight Night headliner against Nassourdine Imavov on Feb. 1. One of the topics that was touched upon during the event was when Adesanya commented on his YouTube channel about being impressed by Chimaev’s dominant win over Robert Whittaker. 

The former middleweight champion was so impressed by it that he even mentioned Khamzat Chimaev as a future matchup for him. 

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What did Israel Adesanya say about Khamzat Chimaev?

When asked about how he envisions a future fight with Chimaev coming together while touching on several key upcoming bouts at the top end of the middleweight division, Adesanya said:

“I haven’t envisioned it. I’ve just been focused on this; [Nassourdine] Imavov for the last 20 weeks or so. That’s the only fight I’ve had in my mind. But yeah, seeing how, what’s his name? Khamzat did definitely made me go like ok, he’s legit. But again, I’ve seen him fight over how many years and you know he’s game. The fight with Gilbert [Burns] was the one that made me respect his dog in him. So I was like oh yeah, this guy’s really; he’s ’bout that life. So yeah, whenever it happens, it happens. But right now, I’m focused on Imavov.”

Watch the interview below: 

That said, it is safe to say that Adesanya vs Chimaev is a fight we can expect to see in the future. While both Chimaev and Adesanya are eyeing the middleweight title, it will be interesting to see if and when the fight gets made. 

Also Read: Logan Paul urges UFC and WWE boss to ‘green light’ fight against Conor McGregor

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