Dana White reveals Khamzat Chimaev will break into welterweight top 10 next Tuesday; praises 'Borz' for incredible striking differential
Dana White was full of praise for Khamzat Chimaev after he defeated Li Jingliang in dominant fashion at UFC 267.
At the post-fight press conference, Dana White revealed that Khamzat Chimaev would likely break into the welterweight top ten by next week. The UFC president said:
"He's back and there's no doubt that this kid special. It's tough [to find an opponent] once you start to break in to the top ten, which he will do on Tuesday. But yeah, if he wants to stay busy, and I'm a big believer in that anyway, specially with the huge lay-off he's had but I don't know."
Khamzat Chimaev is now 4-0 in the UFC after submitting Li Jingliang via rear naked choke in the first round. 'Borz' is currently unranked in the UFC welterweight division. If he lands a top ten spot in the welterweight rankings, he will likely end up above Li Jingliang, who currently sits at No.11. Geoff Neal has been sitting steadily in the 10th spot.
If Dana White is to be believed, then Khamzat Chimaev will most likely replace Neal. This effectively means that Li Jingliang will probably drop down to No.12, and Muslim Salikhov, who sits at No.15, could find himself out of the rankings.
Watch Dana White's post-fight press conference below:
Dana White on Khamzat Chimaev: "He's got more wins in the UFC than he's been hit"
White revealed an exciting statistic about Chimaev. 'Borz' has more UFC wins than he's been hit inside the octagon. The UFC honcho said:
"How about he's got more wins in the UFC, than he's been hit in the UFC? That's crazy!"
Chimaev has outstruck his UFC opponents with a nearly flawless differential of 254-2. Of those two strikes absorbed, only one has been a significant strike that landed on him, which was by John Phillips in Chimaev's UFC debut.
As per official UFC statistics, Khamzat Chimaev has absorbed an astounding 0.10 significant strikes per minute. The UFC record book currently has Islam Makhachev at the top spot for this record with 0.77; this is because a fighter needs a minimum of 5 UFC fights to enter the record book. It's likely that Khamzat Chimaev may overtake the Dagestani after his next outing.
Highest total strike ratio (landed / absorbed) in UFC history, minimum 4 fights:
1. Khamzat Chimaev (127-to-1)
2. Cain Velasquez (4.45-to-1)
3. Chael Sonnen (3.37-to-1)
4. Merab Dvalishvili (3.33-to-1)
#UFC267
The Russian-born Swedish fighter called out Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal after flawlessly beating Li Jingliang at UFC 267. He said at the post-fight press conference:
"Hey Diaz, let's go brother, let's go. Gonna get some smoke bro? And gonna give him some shots bro. We'll see who's the real gangster. Masvidal, he has some belt like some bad motherfu***r belt something, I'm gonna take everything from this UFC, brother. Now, I am UFC, brother!"
Watch Khamzat Chimaev's full post-fight interview below: