Chris Weidman Accepted Khamzat Chimaev Fight: ‘If Everyone Thinks That He’s That Good, Let’s See It’

Chris Weidman Accepted A Khamzat Chimaev Fight, But Would Not Be Interested If The Dageatani Loses His Next Fight Against Leon Edwards

Chris Weidman
Photos via Instagram @chrisweidmam @khamzat_chimaev

There were recently some reports that Chris Weidman was offered a fight with Khamzat Chimaev. The All-American confirmed that he accepted this fight, and for interesting reasons.

It has been a tough road for Weidman since losing the middleweight title, to say the least. In the five years since dropping the strap, he has gone 2-5 in the UFC. It seemed that he was somewhat returning to form though, in a safe decision win over Omari Akhmedov. At a bare minimum he felt confident enough in his performance to call out middleweight champ Israel Adesanya shortly after the fight.

Chris Weidman Accepted Khamzat Chimaev Fight

As it turns out, Chris Weidman is just as willing to fight red hot unbeaten and unranked prospects, as he is to face the champion of the world. Speaking in a recent interview, the former champ revealed that he had accepted a fight offer from the UFC, to take on Khamzat Chimaev. The reason he was so willing to do this was simply because he has no faith in Khamzat’s ability to treat him like the Dagestani’s first two UFC foes.

“They offered me Chimaev, I said yes and I started getting really excited for it,” Weidman said. “I told them I am down to fight whoever in mid-January but I really want that Chimaev fight. Just because everyone’s acting as if everyone’s scared of him and all that. To me, I just wanted to fight the best guys and so if everyone thinks that he’s that good, let’s see it. I have a hard time imagining anybody throwing me around. In any of my losses it wasn’t like a dominating win, it was holy crap out of nowhere in fights that I was winning, other than my Reyes fight. So I just have a hard time with anybody manhandling me and throwing me around, I just can’t imagine that happening. So I would love to see that, if that’s what everybody thinks he can do.”

That being said, it was recently revealed that Chimaev would be taking a fight with number 3 ranked welterweight Leon Edwards. Chris Weidman realizes that this puts a damper on his plans to fight Khamzat first. Not only that, but he says that if Chimaev loses to Edwards, he would no longer have interest in that fight.

“Most likely if he loses his next fight, the interest would be completely gone,” Weidman explained. “Especially a guy with his record, with his experience level which is really not much. The reason I was taking that fight was because there were so much hype behind him, and so many people thought he was really good. If he was to lose and be exposed by Leon Edwards, what’s the purpose of me fighting him?”

Would you be interested in seeing Chris Weidman face off against Khamzat Chimaev? How do you think that bout would go?

Published on October 29, 2020 at 9:56 am
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