Khamzat Chimaev dismisses talks of fighting Robert Whittaker: ‘I need some bad guys’
Khamzat Chimaev is not interested in taking on Robert Whittaker.
The rising top-ranked welterweight prospect recently got into an altercation with Paulo Costa at the UFC Performance Institute. He was scheduled to headline UFC 279 against Nate Diaz in a 170-pound bout but got paired up with Kevin Holland after he came in seven and a half pounds over the agreed weight limit.
Khamzat Chimaev does not want to fight Robert Whittaker
Dana White talked about the potential of “Borz” moving up to middleweight in the future. Chimaev was asked about the idea of competing against former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker. He explained why he was not interested in the matchup.
“I like that guy, so I don’t wanna fight good guys,” Chimaev said. “I need some bad guys, so I wanna fight some bad guys.”
“You care about that sh*t?” Chimaev said at the post-fight press conference (transcribed by Aaron Bronsteter of TSN Sports ). “I don’t care. I care about my family, I care about my family, I care about my career, I care about my money… One day they’re with me, one day they’re not with me.”
White wants Chimaev to move up
Considering the huge gap Chimaev missed the mark by, his future in the welterweight division looked uncertain. White gave his take on the matter, suggesting a move up to middleweight for “Borz.”
“It’s a problem,” White said (h/t MMAFighting). “That’s a problem that he missed weight. I don’t know. We’ve got to look at it and figure it out. What makes sense is for him to fight at [185 pounds], so we’ll see. “It is what it is. It happened. We’ll go back this week and come up with a plan and probably have him fight at [185]. After he just didn’t make weight, I don’t know,” White said when addressing Chimaev’s future. “There’s a lot of possibilities for him. Possibly at 170 or at 185.”
