“Couldn’t Defend Against Khabib”: Khamzat Chimaev Disappoints Fans as He Struggles to Submit Ex-UFC Champ

Allan Binoy | 07/08/2024
“Couldn’t Defend Against Khabib”: Khamzat Chimaev Disappoints Fans as He Struggles to Submit Ex-UFC Champ

Khamzat Chimaev has always claimed to be one of the best wrestlers in the UFC, but a recent video is making him lose all his credibility. The clip showed the Russian fighter grappling with Luke Rockhold, a former UFC champion. Rockhold was a striker and never really relied on his ground game to win him fights. So when fans saw Chimaev struggling to submit him, they were not very happy.

Naturally, people on social media were quick to compare Chimaev with Khabib Nurmagomedov, the latter of whom outclassed Rockhold in a grappling session,

“Meanwhile Luke couldn’t defend against Khabib like that lmao”

One fan claimed that the video settled the debate of who is a better grappler between Nurmagomedov and Chimaev,

“I think this settles the debate on who’s the better grappler between Khabib and Khamzat”

Another found it funny that one of the best grapplers in the UFC could not submit a striker,

“Can’t even sub Luke”

Similarly, this commenter called ‘Borz’ out for being a ‘fraud’ with his wrestling,

“Khamzat is fraud”

And a fourth user poked fun at Chimaev’s track record of pulling out of his fights,

“All this just to pull out the week of the fight”

However, one fan backed Rockhold’s ground game, crediting the American Kickboxing Academy for matching him up against good opponents,

“Luke had the best ground game in MMA. He had exceptional training partners at AKA”

Well, despite the criticism, Chimaev’s fans will hope the training pays off since his next fight has already been teased.

Guram Kutateladze gives an update on Chimaev’s next fight

Guram Kutateladze is a Georgian UFC fighter and also one of Chimaev’s closest friends. The pair often train together and spend time together.

Well, in a recent interview with Red Corner MMA, Kutateladze spoke about the possibility of the Russian returning to the octagon soon, as he said,

“Yes I spoke to him too not so long time ago. So we hope so, I hope so that he’s gonna get back soon. If it’s gonna be here (Abu Dhabi), or somewhere else in the world.”

Chimaev is currently filming for the Russian version of TUF called Hype Reality and will be facing off against Arman Tsarukyan in a coach vs coach fight. Hence, it will be interesting to see when ‘Borz’ will announce his return to the UFC octagon now that he has recovered from his illness.

Post Edited By: Shraman Mitra
Khabib Nurmagomedov khamzat chimaev

About the author

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Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

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