Khamzat Chimaev, the 4th ranked welterweight, is coming after the middleweight championship. His first domino to fall will be Paulo Costa in the UFC 294 co-main event on Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi
“Now it’s my time, so smash that guy (Paulo Costa). Then it doesn’t matter if it will be Izzy, or Strickland, or somebody else. We coming for them. Strickland!, Khamzat said with a laugh. “Coming for him. If you stay there, man. Coming for you too.”
Chimaev has trained with Strickland before and his coaches and says Strickland deserved the belt.
“He (Strickland) works hard, deserves it. That guy is always in the gym. Now he got the belt. He has a good team, good coach. I’ve been there, training with that guy. They deserve that belt. He’s been active, fights with everybody.”
Chimaev wonders what the UFC is waiting for in giving him a championship bout.
“I don’t know what the the guys (UFC) waiting. Give that chance to me. They are hiding that belt from me. Anyway, like I said, when I smash everybody, they have to give that belt to me.
Chimaev has fought at middleweight before while on the UFC roster. He faced Gerald Meerschaert in Sept. 2020 and only needed 17 seconds to finish him. He fought John Phillips as well, and defeated him by submission early in the second round. Before arriving in the UFC, Chimaev competing in three middleweight matches in Brave FC
It’s a different weight class. Different power. We eat different. Not hungry anymore. At (welterweight) I eat just rice, rice fish, rice chicken. It’s crazy,” Chimeav said. “Now more training than before. More food. More energy. Different power. Different energy, so that’s good. We need to cut the weight anyway. It’s not that much like before. 100-percent I’m going to smash that guy (Costa). That’s all I know.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/khamzat-chimaev-releases-training-footage-for-paulo-costa-fight-says-strickland-deserved-the-belt-but-hes-coming-for-it
