Khamzat Chimaev blasts ‘hypocritical’ middleweight for saying he’s open to Chechnya vs Dagestan clash

Chimaev blasts fellow middleweight contender for being open to fight

The middleweight division has somewhat transformed over the past year with the likes of Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker having been knocked off their perch by fighters like Nassourdine Imavov and Anthony Hernandez.

And one 185lb contender who is hoping to join the aforementioned group of middleweights is Ikram Aliskerov, who already has a history with the current champion.

Back in 2019, just five fights into his MMA career, Chimaev met Aliskerov in the cage at Brave CF 23. At the time, Aliskerov was also undefeated and was looking at earning his spot in the UFC.

‘Borz’ went on to score a viral first round uppercut KO which immediately put his name on the map.

In a recent interview, Aliskerov claimed he would fight Chimaev on a few days’ notice and is confident in his chances of making the result different to their last fight.

However, this didn’t sit well with Chimaev who has blasted the Dagestani fighter for being open to the Dagestan vs Chechnya matchup.

“Why do people give interviews to these idiots? When I say I’ll fight someone from Dagestan, it’s an interethnic problem. When they say they’ll fight me it’s sport. Stop being hypocritical,” Chimaev commented.

Who will Chimaev defend his title against next?

This past Saturday, a big middleweight clash between Brendan Allen and Reinier de Ridder took place at UFC Vancouver.

Reinier’s corner subsequently pulled him out of the fight at the end of round four after being dominated throughout the fight, failing in his attempt to earn a title shot.

And with that, the likely contender to fight Chimaev for the title next is the aforementioned Imavov, who is riding an impressive five fight win streak.