Khamzat Chimaev Reveals Fighters At Tiger Muay Thai Refuse To Spar Him: ‘I Have Heavy Hands’
Khamzat Chimaev has recently spent time training at renowned striking facility, Tiger Muay Thai, but has revealed he is fast running into the issue of fighters at the gym refusing to spar with him beyond light sessions.
Chimaev, a former Brave CF standout, boasts an undefeated 10-0 professional record, and improved his run in the UFC to four straight victories back in October in Abu Dhabi, UAE – stopping Li Jingliang with a stunningly dominant first round rear-naked choke win at UFC 267.
The Chechen-born contender earned the #10 rank in the official welterweight pile off the back of his submission win over Jingliang, and since then, has been linked to a high-stakes pairing against one-time title chaser, Gilbert Burns.
Khamzat Chimaev offered to fight Gilbert Burns in Brazil before the relocation of UFC 274 on May 7.
A pairing Burns and Chimaev has been linked to both UFC 273 on April 9. – as well as UFC 274 on May 7., however, at the time of publication, the promotion have yet to book the matchup despite interest from both sides of the equation.
Following his win over Jingliang, Chimaev, a staple of AllStars MMA in Sweden, has taken time to train at Tiger Muay Thai alongside interim UFC bantamweight champion, Petr Yan, and streaking lightweight finisher, Rafael Fiziev.
Describing his experience at the facility during a recent interview with Russian outlet, RT Sport – Chimaev explained how many of his sparring partners elect against sparring to a level he prefers, themselves preferring to spar lightly.
“For the most part, I still worked with heavyweights and 205ers,” Khamzat Chimaev said. “I don’t want to speak highly of myself, but I have heavy hands so some guys don’t want to spar with me. Here at (Tiger Muay Thai), I’ve had some sparring sessions and the guys don’t want to spar me again. I have a different approach: when I spar I do it the tough way. Look at all great boxers, they never had light sparring.”
Chimaev also claimed that a welcomed approach from the facility to filming of training sessions has prevented him from keeping some of his tactical training under wraps per say.
“Also it’s hard to keep any secrets here,” Khamzat Chimaev said of Tiger Muay Thai. “Everybody has a camera. Everytime I am doing pad work or rolling, everyone around starts filming. Kind of mess here in the gym. I don’t get it.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda)
Before his opening frame submission win over Jingliang, Chimaev had enjoyed a trio of straight stoppage wins over Gerald Meerschaert, Rhys McKee, and John Philips since his Octagon debut in July 2020.
