Joe Rogan is excited to see Khamzat Chimaev tested by another former world champion after Kamaru Usman “didn’t have a chance to prepare.”
In October 2023, Chimaev was scheduled to fight Paulo Costa to potentially secure his seventh UFC win. Unfortunately, Costa pulled out with a severe elbow injury, leading to former 170-pound champion Usman stepping in on short notice for his first promotional middleweight bout.
Considering the circumstances, Usman exceeded expectations by pushing Chimaev to the limit in round three and barely losing by majority decision. During a recent episode of JRE, Joe Rogan gave ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ the benefit of the doubt by saying this about his lack of preparation time:
“They gave [Chimaev] Kamaru Usman and Kamaru didn’t have a chance to prepare for that. He had ten days. That’s not enough time. I don’t know what kind of shape he was in. He’s always in shape, but famously, Kamaru has bad knees, like real bad knees. So, I don’t know how hard he was training or whether or not he prepares, maybe he only sacrifices his knees during training and then when he’s not training for a fight, he takes it easy, so he doesn’t stay in the same kind of shape.”
Rogan continued by questioning what would’ve happened if Usman vs. Chimaev was a five-round fight instead of three:
“I know he was winning in the third round. If that was a five-round fight, who knows how the f*ck that fight would have went. Obviously, Kamaru is world championship caliber, the best welterweight of all time by most people’s accounts. It’s not enough time, it’s not enough time to get a guy to prepare for Khamzat. At least we got a chance to see what Khamzat looked like against a world-class, world championship-caliber fighter.”
Watch Joe Rogan’s entire recent podcast episode below:
Joe Rogan claims Robert Whittaker is “a real fight for Khamzat Chimaev”
On June 22, Khamzat Chimaev looks to extend his UFC record to 8-0 when the promotion holds an event in Saudi Arabia for the first time. Standing in the way of ‘Borz’ is former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, who is coming off an impressive unanimous decision win against Paulo Costa on February 17.
During the previously mentioned podcast, Joe Rogan had this to say about his excitement for Chimaev to face another former world champion:
“Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev in Saudi Arabia. That one is gonna be f*cking wild, that’s a wild one. That is a wild fight… Whittaker vs. Khamzat is legit. That’s a real fight. That’s a real fight for Khamzat because Whittaker is a big dude. He’s a big, solid, beefy 185 former world champion. Both guys started at 170, but it was too hard to make the 170. That’s a real 185er… This is a big one. This is Robert Whittaker with plenty of time to prepare. A guy who is just as legit as they get. Just beat Paulo Costa. That’s a good fight. I like that.”
Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker have an opportunity to secure more than an impressive name on their resume. With a win in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event, either top middleweight contender could secure a title shot against Dricus du Plessis, who is expected to defend his throne for the first time against Israel Adesanya later this year.
