Despite boasting an unblemished unbeaten record of seven straight wins in the UFC, Khamzat Chimaev is nowhere near a title shot. Ill fate has kept the Chechen wolf from ascending the throne, halting his advance regardless of the stellar seven-fight win streak. Divulging his thoughts about the middleweight, UFC veteran Chael Sonnen put forth a new perspective on the undefeated Chechen’s career.
Speaking to his Good Guy/ Bad Guy co-host, Daniel Cormier, Sonnen uncovered ‘Borz’s’ accolade, comparing the latter with the likes of Brock Lesner, Conor McGregor and Cain Velasquez to uncover his dismal luck.
“There’s nobody who has won their first seven fights in the UFC and not fought for a title. Brock Lesner was 1-1, Conor (McGregor) hadn’t gotten to five straight, Cain Velasquez got in the UFC because everybody was so scared of him on the open scene and he only had to do five fights. That is actually a record that Chimaev holds, not just that it was his seven consecutive, it was his first seven!”
Well, Sonnen is bang-on with this one.
Highlighting his explosion into the UFC scene, making quick work of the competition with his elite wrestling, Sonnen says that there’s no fighter on the roster who hasn’t had a title shot after seven straight wins.
Despite making his debut way back in 2020, Chimaev hasn’t been able to get into the championship picture purely because of his health issues and the recent jump to middleweight.
While the fighter has the numbers backing him up in the promotion fighters like Alex Pereira who joined the company after him have racked up two titles whereas Chimaev is still outside the top 10 rankings.
However, Chimaev is eyeing a massive return to UFC in Abu Dhabi despite the dismal fallout of UFC Saudi Arabia.
Chimaev looks to comeback at UFC Abu Dhabi
Dana White and Co. really put their efforts into making a banger for UFC’s first-ever event in Saudi Arabia. Working in close connection with Saudi’s Royal advisor Turki Alalshikh, UFC featured a middleweight bout between former champ, Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev.
The whole community was on their toes for the epic matchup, a bout that could’ve propelled Chimaev into the MW stratosphere but as fate would have it, it did not fall through.
After falling violently ill, Chimaev was forced to pull out, giving Dagestani, Ikram Aliskerov the opportunity. In the end, ‘Borz’ had to witness his stated opponent, Whittaker destroy Ikram and take away the prize.
Recently, in a conversation with MatchTV, Chimaev opened up about his desire to compete in UFC’s Abu Dhabi card in October.
“Most likely [my return will happen] in October in Abu Dhabi. The opponent is not yet known, but I would like to fight for the title. I have seven fights, seven victories. There is no fighter in the UFC who has won seven fights without fighting for the belt. Dana White constantly says different things, but we are negotiating.”
While the UFC hasn’t finalized anything at this point where the two parties are negotiating, Chimaev is manifesting it- loud and clear for the promotion to make amends and get him back to speed.
And as Chimaev dubbed it, his business with Whittaker is still not over yet!
