"You know haw fast I can finish you" - Khamzat Chimaev sends ominous warning to Sean Strickland ahead of potential title fight
This weekend at UFC 294, Khamzat Chimaev picked up the biggest win of his MMA career to date by outpointing former welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman.
It wasn’t a flawless showing from ‘Borz’, who seemed to tire in the latter stages of the fight. However, the fact that he completely dominated Usman in the grappling department in the first round was truly astonishing.
Following his win over Kamaru Usman this weekend, Khamzat Chimaev is widely expected to challenge for the UFC middleweight title in his next bout.
This was confirmed by Dana White prior to the event, shocking some fans, who suggested that Dricus du Plessis was being overlooked.
Either way, Chimaev’s title shot will put him on a collision course with current middleweight champ Sean Strickland. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken ‘Borz’ long to fire a warning shot at ‘Tarzan’ on social media.
Interestingly, Strickland himself has already claimed that he doesn’t believe that Chimaev deserves a shot at him following his win over Usman. The reigning champ, who dethroned Israel Adesanya earlier this year in a major upset, stated the following on UFC Fight Pass this weekend.
“The only thing I like about Chimaev is that he sells fights. For some f*cking reason, people like him or don’t like him, I dunno, but to me he’s a f*cking pay cheque. He sells a lot of fights, people paying to watch, but he f*cking hasn’t earned it, doesn’t f*cking deserve it, but here we are. Give it to him. He sells a lot of fights. I’ll go f*cking fight the man for five rounds. But no, he has not earned it. He doesn’t f*cking deserve it. Getting a decision with a welterweight off a couch is not f*cking earning it.”
Watch Sean Strickland discuss this below.
Khamzat Chimaev: did the UFC superstar say he wanted to fight in Palestine?
Most MMA fans were impressed with Khamzat Chimaev’s performance in his win over Kamaru Usman this weekend at UFC 294.
However, ‘Borz’ stoked some controversy with his words post-fight.
While the portion of his post-fight interview that came in English saw him discuss the current situation in Israel and Gaza and state “Muslim, Christian, Jewish, it doesn’t matter, please guys, be together...be happy”, some fans were shocked by the portion that came in his native Russian language.
A video of this portion of the interview has emerged on X (formerly Twitter) and has been translated into English. Following this, some fans have suggested that Chimaev’s message actually suggested he wanted to fight for the Palestinian cause in Gaza.
Watch Khamzat Chimaev’s post-fight speech translated from Russian to English below.