Israel Adesanya Downplays Idea Of Khamzat Chimaev Fight
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya thinks Khamzat Chimaev still has a lot of work to do to earn a potential title shot against him.
Adesanya outlasted Robert Whittaker in their title rematch at UFC 271. It was a much more competitive fight than their first matchup at UFC 243, but Adesanya was able to out-work Whittaker in the later rounds.
Chimaev hasn’t competed since his quick finish over Li Jingliang at UFC 267. While he has competed at middleweight in the UFC, he’s fought a majority of the time at welterweight.
Some fans have begun discussing new challengers for Adesanya in the UFC. One of them is Chimaev, who is quickly rising among the UFC’s elite talents to watch in 2022.
During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Adesanya explained why he’s not even thinking of a fight with Chimaev happening anytime soon.
Israel Adesanya Is Fresh Off His Win Against Robert Whittaker
“He’s not really relevant right now,” Adesanya said. “I don’t have to take him seriously until I have to take him seriously. His last fight I was impressed with. I was like, ‘Yo, that guy’s good.’ But there’s levels. So we’ll see how he does with Gilbert [Burns]. And he’s only fought like one Middleweight fight that I’ve seen and I’m just like who’s he fought? He can beat a lot of Middleweights, I’ll tell ya that much. A lot of top-level Middleweights. But I don’t have to take him seriously until I have to take him seriously. And I feel like it’s gonna be the same thing with how [Paulo] Costa got set up.”
Adesanya is expected to face Jared Cannonier for his next title defense later this year. Outside of Cannonier, there aren’t a ton of warranted first-time title contenders, aside from Sean Strickland.
This could potentially open the door for Chimaev to move up to middleweight full-time at some point. But for now, he has his eyes set on welterweight gold.
Do you think we’ll ever see Israel Adesanya vs. Khamzat Chimaev?
