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Khamzat Chimaev has been looking around for his options as his future looks uncertain in UFC welterweight division. Borz was subjected to meet UFC legend Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 279, but he was unable to meet the scale and eventually fought Kevin Holland in a catchweight bout after the shuffle of the main card. The Swede has hinted about his move to middleweight, but no one seems to know who Khamzat Chimaev's next opponent will be.
Khamzat Chimaev has been calling out the newly crowned middleweight champion Alex Pereira but it's too early to award a title fight to Chimaev after a series of the event affected his reputation in UFC’s opinion.
Given recent comments made by Daniel Cormier, Chael Sonnen agreed with the former double champ and added his remarks on why Paulo Costa should think about challenging Chimaev for the opportunity to challenge Robert Whittaker. Paulo Costa’s bout versus #1 ranked middleweight Whittaker recently got canceled at UFC 284 due to failure to reach an agreement.
Sonnen suggested that the Brazilian should compete and earn a spot on the squad rather than sitting back and waiting out his deal in order to win a championship.
"I'm just reminding you, I'm just setting the stage for you. 'Cause Paulo has two ways to do it, he can take a fight, he's done. Or he can not take the fight and just wait out the clause, which he said was early summer, he said it was June. And I think that the smartest move, if it is in fact June, the smartest move is to wait till June. If you are prized fighter and you wanna stay in the rankings, you wanna pursue a dream, you gotta get in there."
Later Sonnen brought attention to Cormier's remarks regarding Khamzat Chimaev and proposed that "Borrachinha" challenge the Chechen-born Swede over Whittaker.
"But now you're in a situation when you said no to Whittaker, if you're gonna say yes to somebody else, and that's what your move is, it would only make sense that whoever you agree to is an easier fight than Whittaker. And I'm not sure, when Daniel suggested Chimaev, that Daniel meant it in that way but possibly he did. Possibly Daniel just stated that his opinion is that Chimaev is not as tough as Robert Whittaker."
A great big and nasty test awaits as Chimaev prepares to clash in the middleweight division and there are physically tougher fighters than Borz. His recent callouts Paulo Costa and Alex Pereira can eat Khamzat alive in the octagon. The Brazilian duo had a bigger and stronger hand that can easily knock Chimaev with a single blow. If Gilbert Burns can take down and give a tough time Chimaev then it’s a piece of cake for the Brazilian middleweights.