Israel Adesanya is looking for ‘fresh meat’. That could potentially be Khamzat Chimaev who he comes across one day.
The UFC Champion is out here lapping the middleweight division. He has beat top contenders like Robert Whittaker and Marvin Vettori, while also dominating guys like Derek Brunson and Paulo Costa. While Adesanya has his eyes on fighting a new opponent in Jared Cannonier, he does see another name in the mix.
That would be no other than Khamzat Chimaev, the rising UFC superstar.
‘He Will Bring In A Lot Of Eyes’
Chimaev has still got a ways to go, as he’s not fighting at middleweight currently. But with the skills he’s got and the eyeballs watching him, Adesanya believes he might meet him in the future. Though, Adesanya isn’t putting too much focus on him until then.
“I don’t have to take him seriously till I have to take him seriously,” Adesanya said on the True Geordie Podcast. “That’s a guy that definitely I’d like to fight, if he does what he says he wants to do. Because guess what? He will bring in a lot of eyes. He’s the guy…”
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Adesanya Is Impressed With Chimaev
‘The Last Stylebender’ needs to see a bit more from ‘Borz’ before a fight with him takes place. However, Adesanya did get a good look at what Chimaev can do, when he dominated Li Jingliang in his last fight. The lone performance might have been the full course, but it was decent appetizer for the champ.
“Those are the ones that are crazy enough to make it happen. He’s on his way. But, show me something first… His last fight made me take notice. I know how Li Jingliang is. He’s good. [Chimaev manhandled him] beautifully, beautifully. There’s something he did in that fight, I won’t, I won’t give it away, but I was, I was like hmm… I liked that. I was really impressed with.
“That’s what made me take notice of him properly. But at the moment still, it’s just barking in the wind. [But] look, he can beat a lot of these guys at 185, a lot of the top guys from what I’ve heard.”
Despite what he saw, Adesanya need to get more highlight reels from Khamzat Chimaev.
“But let me see it first, then we’ll start talking before all this hype around him.”