UFC middleweight contender urges Khamzat Chimaev to go through him before fighting for title

Following his recent weight-cutting issues at UFC 279, Khamzat Chimaev has hinted at moving up to the middleweight division of the promotion.

1 8 5 👊🏼💥 https://t.co/urOK6BPayG

Chimaev wasted no time in calling out Alex Pereira for a fight in the octagon after the Brazilian won his middleweight title match against Israel Adesanya. Chimaev challenged 'Poatan' to a fight at the upcoming UFC 282 fight event on December 10, 2022, at the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada, Las Vegas, United States.

@AlexPereiraUFC 10 December let’s go, i already agreed. Now it’s your turn ⚔️

While the Brazilian is yet to respond to 'Borz', No. 4 ranked middleweight Marvin Vettori feels that the Chechen-born Swede should cross paths with him before eyeing the title belt.

Taking to his official Twitter handle, Vettori tweeted:

"I’d say you fight me first 🤪"

Check out Marvin Vettori's callout to Khamzat Chimaev in his tweet below:

I’d say you fight me first 🤪 twitter.com/kchimaev/statu…

Khamzat Chimaev made his UFC debut in 2020 against John Phillips, defeating 'The Welsh Wrecking Machine' via submission in the second round. Following his debut, the 28-year-old fighter has battled the likes of Jingliang Li, Gilbert Burns, and Kevin Holland, to name a few. Apart from Burns, 'Borz' has defeated all of his opponents through submissions and knockouts, with most of the matches lasting no more than the second round.

Being a fighter of such brutality, it would be interesting to see how well 'Borz' would fare against someone like Marvin Vettori if the two ever happens to face off sometime in the future.

A title fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Alex Pereira doesn't make sense, according to John McCarthy

John McCarthy doesn't seem impressed with the potential title fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Alex Pereira. Appearing on a recent episode of his podcast Weighing In, the veteran referee voiced his thoughts on the matter.

The two fighters have a difference in their fighting style, and hence a matchup doesn't make sense, according to McCarthy:

"Khamzat's coming off of a middleweight fight against Kevin Holland. He didn't make weight for a welterweight fight, that's why he ends up in that middleweight matchup. That's not exactly the person you want to jump the line and put into a championship fight against a guy like Alex Pereira. Wrestling is gonna be his weakness, stand-up is his game. When he's fighting someone like 'Izzy' - Adesanya, you can say that makes sense in that fight."

In the interview, the 60-year-old also stated that the promotion would be hesitant to make the matchup because Pereira had just won his title against Israel Adesanya, one of the division's longest-standing champions.

Check out John McCarthy voice out his opinion on Khamzat Chimaev in the video below: