Chael Sonnen has an interesting theory to start off the new year.
Discussing Khamzat Chimaev’s Future
A three-time UFC title challenger himself, Sonnen senses a championship opportunity is coming soon for undefeated contender Khamzat Chimaev. But, Sonnen reckons it won’t be at Chimaev’s new home at middleweight— where he cracked the top 10 rankings with a decision win over former champ Kamaru Usman.
No, Sonnen believes Chimaev could be given a welterweight title shot instead, due to his ‘process of elimination’ of potential opponents for reigning UFC Champ Leon Edwards.
“It starts to look more and more as though it is not Islam [Makhachev],” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “If it is not Islam, it clearly should be Belal [Muhammad], but it’s not. It can’t be Rakhmonov who, according to himself and his team, just defrauded the Nevada State Athletic Commission and all of you, then who would it be?
“You just start by process of elimination running out of players. Now it should be who it should be, which is Muhammad. But if it’s not, who would it be? Your process of elimination starts to get very small, and that’s where you start to start turning your head back to Khamzat Chimaev.”
Chimaev went 3-0 in the Octagon as a welterweight, with his last win in the division being over Gilbert Burns. A title run for Chimaev at 170lbs looked very promising, but that took a turn for the worst when he missed weight by 7.5lbs against UFC superstar Nate Diaz.
Three cancelled bookings against current champ Leon Edwards didn’t help Chimaev at welterweight either.
Sonnen Explains The ‘Moving Parts’ At Middleweight
After stepping onto the scales heavy, Chimaev moved up to middleweight in hopes of finally capturing UFC gold. Sonnen says that might take a while as fights between Sean Strickland, Dricus Du Plessis, and even Israel Adesanya could hold up the 185lb division in 2024.
“This is a guy that was on a fast track,” Sonnen said of Chimaev. “This is a guy who there is people in certain parts of the world would like to see as the champion. But, you can’t even give him a championship opportunity because you now have Izzy and you have DDP. You see the moving parts?”
‘Chimaev Is Up To Something’
The fighter-turned-analyst does question if Chimaev’s ability to go back down to welterweight after his big weight miss at UFC 279. But, if Chael P. Sonnen is sure about one thing, it’s that Khamzat Chimaev is up to something.
“I think he’s too big to make 170lbs, but I don’t think the performance that he had at a 185 was exactly the one that he and company were looking to have. He could have his options other places.”
“Chimaev is up to something,” Sonnen emphasized. “If he’s not coming back and demanding his championship opportunity at 185lbs, which was promised to him, if he’s doing that, it does make me think it’s because he has a different plan.”
There’s ‘The Right Choice’ And Then There’s Khamzat Chimaev
While Belal Muhammad getting a title shot after a 10-fight unbeaten streak makes logical sense, Sonnen still has his doubts. Khamzat Chimaev’s star power could be enough to sway the UFC to pursue an entirely different direction.
“The only thing holding me back from telling you that he’s gonna return to 170 is his pure size. The last he tried to go to 170, he missed it by 8lbs. Like, I don’t think that it’s all that much of a likelihood. But, I also don’t think Mohammad being passed over when he is so clearly the right choice.
“Between the two ridiculously wild stretches, do we not give Belal what we promised Belal and what is obviously his or do we bring Chimaev back down to a weight class that he missed by 8lbs over a year ago and put him in? I don’t know, guys. Both things seem a little bit weird. And my final analysis is something is going on, and we don’t yet know what that is.”
Will Khamzat Chimaev pass up Belal Muhammad for a title shot?
