- Khamzat Chimaev is confident he could take out Paulo Costa at UFC 294
- “Borz” praised Sean Strickland but vows to take over the middleweight division
Khamzat Chimaev is ensuring Paulo Costa will be put in his place once they meet inside the Octagon for their middleweight showdown at UFC 294. Apart from Costa, “Borz” also warned everybody in the 185-pound division, especially Israel Adesanya and reigning middleweight champ Sean Strickland.
It’s Borz Time!
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chimaev swore to dismantle Costa first before moving on to take over the entire middleweight division. For “Borz,” Strickland rightfully deserved the belt but if he remains the champ for long, then he would be “smeshed” as well.
“Now is my time. Smash that guy, then it doesn’t matter if it will be Izzy or Strickland or somebody else. We’re coming for them,” Chimaev said in the video.
“Strickland! [I’m] coming for him! If you stay there, man, I’m coming for you too! He works hard, he deserves it. The guy is always in the gym. Now he got the belt. He has a good team, good coach. I have been there, training with that guy. They deserve that belt. He has been active, fights with everybody.”
“I don’t know what the [UFC] is waiting. Give that chance to me. They are hiding that belt from me. Anyway, like I said, when I smesh everybody, they need to give that belt to me.”
Khamzat is a scary middleweight
Chimaev also talked about how his diet as a 185-pounder has been good for his overall energy and power. He then reminded everybody that what they fail to understand is that he has already proven in the past that he is a scary fighter in the middleweight and they are now about to witness it again.
“It’s a different weight class [middleweight], different power, we eat different, we’re not hungry anymore. At 77 kg [welterweight], I eat just rice. Rice fish, rice chicken. It’s crazy. Now, more training than before, more food, more energy, different power, different energy, so that’s good. We need to cut weight anyway but it’s not that much like before,” Chimaev explained.
“I fought Gerald Meerschaert in that weight class. I smesh that guy with one punch. That’s my real power. The guys don’t understand. But it’s waiting for them,” he added.
This is only Chimaev’s second UFC fight as a middleweight. He finished Gerald Meerschaert in less than one round in his 185-pound debut in 2020. Despite the lack of middleweight credentials, “Borz” clearly is eyeing for the belt. That said, it would be interesting to see if a win over Costa could take him there.
Check out the full video below:
