Fans slam Khamzat Chimaev for ducking Alex Pereira as he talks about fighters avoiding him

No.3-ranked UFC welterweight Khamzat Chimaev was recently featured in an Instagram video by ESPN MMA. This video in particular received a lot of flak from users in the comments section.

'Borz' claimed that he was offered four different fighters in four different countries by the UFC, but all four fighters turned down the fight against him.

Here's ESPN MMA's Instagram video of Khamzat Chimaev:

In the video, Khamzat Chimaev can be seen saying the following:

"Nobody wants to fight [me]. F**k these boys. They [UFC] gave me [four different] countries [to fight in], and [four] different opponents [but] nobody wants to fight [me]. [They] speak a lot of thrash talk, [they talk] a lot of s**t about me, saying, 'I don't want to fight you, I want to fight you.' But, when it comes to the fight and [signing] the contract, everyone runs away."

The four fighters that Chimaev might be alluding to are Paulo Costa, Alex Pereira, Gilbert Burns, and Belal Muhammad.

Fans didn't take too kindly to Chimaev's words and took to the comments section to voice their frustrations with the Chechen-born Swede. One user speculated that he was offered Alex Pereira in Brazil, Robert Whittaker in Australia, Colby Covington in London, and Belal Muhammad in Las Vegas - all of which 'Borz' turned down.

One user with the handle @melted_fish claimed that Khamzat Chimaev was spewing lies.

@melted_fish calling out Khamzat Chimaev [Image courtesy: @espnmma (Instagram)]

The user's comment read:

"All lies. Belal [Muhammad] has been calling him out for months, [Gilbert] Burns also. [Alex] Pereira also called him out. Roman Dolidze called him out, [Paulo] Costa too. He [Chimaev] is the one that turned the fights down."

Another user with the handle @dusko.cikota commented, asking Chimaev why he turned Alex Pereira down at 205 lbs. He preceded his question by claiming that Chimaev wants to 'fight midgets' at lower weight classes.

---

When Khamzat Chimaev single-handedly caused a whole card to reshuffle

Chimaev was supposed to headline the UFC 279 card alongside Nate Diaz in the octagon. However, he missed weight by 8.5 pounds over the 170-lbs limit. What's bewildering is that the Chechen-born Swede seemed unfazed and even amused at not making weight.

Many members of the MMA community were frustrated with 'Borz' saying that he shouldn't be allowed to compete at welterweight in his future bouts.

Check MMA Fighting's video of Khamzat Chimaev's UFC 279 weigh-in:

With Chimaev missing weight by more than eight pounds, the UFC reshuffled the fight card. 'Borz' was initially supposed to face Diaz in the main event, but he ended up facing Kevin Holland in a 180-lbs catchweight bout. Diaz fought Tony Ferguson, who was supposed to fight Li Jinliang, in the main event.

In the UFC 279 co-main event, 'Borz' took Holland to the ground after faking a glove-touch, and proceeded to submit 'Trailblazer' via d'arce choke in the first round.

​