Watch: Khamzat Chimaev shows off crisp striking ahead of UFC comeback
Ahead of his upcoming fight against Li Jingliang, Khamzat Chimaev aka The Chechen Wolf showcased his brilliant striking skills on the mitts. You can watch Chimaev’s mitt work in the video below:
The video shows Khamzat Chimaev initially throwing punches from the orthodox stance – hitting the mitts with jabs, straights/crosses, and hooks. Chimaev also threw an uppercut in for good measure.
Furthermore, Khamzat Chimaev notably ensured that he isn’t a stationary target while hitting the mitts. Chimaev constantly moved around, slipped counters, and kept changing angles – sharpening his defense.
Another intriguing part of his training was him hitting the mitts from the southpaw stance. Khamzat Chimaev’s punches looked just as crisp and explosive from the southpaw stance as they did from the orthodox.
Khamzat Chimaev rose to prominence in the MMA world last year, securing a trio of impressive victories in the UFC. All three of his UFC wins came via stoppage and earned him a high-stakes fight against top-tier UFC welterweight Leon Edwards.
Unfortunately, Khamzat Chimaev’s fight against Leon Edwards fell apart on three separate occasions. Chimaev and Edwards contracted COVID-19 prior to their fight that was supposed to take place in December of last year.
Their fight was subsequently rescheduled, and while Edwards recovered from his COVID-19 affliction, Chimaev struggled. The Chechnya-born Swedish MMA stalwart was dealing with health complications caused by COVID-19 and pulled out of his fight against Edwards again.
Their fight was rescheduled once again. However, Chimaev pulled out from their third booking as well, since he was still dealing with health issues related to COVID-19. Thankfully, Khamzat Chimaev recovered from his long battle against COVID-19 earlier this year and is set to return to the octagon at UFC 267.
Khamzat Chimaev has his sights set on UFC gold
The UFC welterweight title is currently held by Kamaru Usman, whereas the UFC middleweight title is held by Israel Adesanya. Khamzat Chimaev has time and again asserted that he plans to win both the UFC welterweight as well as middleweight titles.
Nevertheless, as of this time, it appears as though Khamzat Chimaev is likely to first focus on pursuing the UFC welterweight title before he fights at middleweight again. Chimaev’s upcoming fight will be a welterweight bout against Li Jingliang at UFC 267 on October 30th, 2021.