Neil Magny Wants To Fight Khamzat Chimaev On December 18
Neil Magny continues to raise his hand for a fight with the highly fancied and often avoided Khamzat Chimaev who is fresh off the biggest win of his career at UFC 267.
‘The Wolf’ looked sensational against Li Jingliang this past weekend in what was billed as his toughest test to date. Chimaev picked up his opponent early in the fight and slammed him to the mat. The undefeated prospect chatted to UFC president Dana White who was cageside while he worked on submitting his tough opponent who he choked out in just over three minutes.
Post-fight, talk quickly turned to who Chimaev will face next. Not a lot of people have been eager to fight the 10-0 prospect but Magny consistently called for a fight with Chimaev before the rising star was sidelined for more than a year due to complications related to contracting COVID-19. Now that he’s back, Magny has again called for a fight with Chimaev.
Neil Magny Wants To Fight Khamzat Chimaev Even More After UFC 267
“I was going about my day after the fight happened and I was getting messages with the same old routine saying, ‘No one wants to fight this guy.’ ‘I doubt on Monday when the new rankings come out that anyone in the top 10 will fight this guy.’ ‘He’s just a monster and everyone is going to do their best to avoid him,’” Neil Magny told MMA Junkie. “I’m sitting there reading these comments over and over again like, ‘What? No way. I wanted to fight this guy a year ago.’ Nothing has changed today. He did come back, he did look impressive against Jingliang, but for me it adds fuel to the fire. It makes me want to fight him more than I did last year.
“Maybe it was a good thing this fight got pushed off as long as it did. A year ago I would have 100 percent might’ve looked past him, like, ‘Ah whatever. Some new kid that thinks he’s hot stuff. School this kid and show him what’s up.’ Coming out here and beating Jingliang the way he did, it definitely made me take a step back like, ‘Oh damn. This kid’s legit.’ He definitely has some skills that he brings to the table. To me, that’s the kind of fight that makes it more exciting – the guys that make you have to stay on your A-game. When I saw what he did to Jingliang, that made me more excited to fight him.”
Magny is expected to fight on December 18 and is currently without an opponent. He thinks Chimaev could be the perfect foe, considering their history and the Swedish fighters’ desire to stay busy.
“I was offered a fight for Dec. 18 and the fight ended up falling through because the opponent got injured shortly after. As of now, the UFC is working actively to get me a replacement for Dec. 18. So in a perfect world, this fight takes place Dec. 18. He absorbed zero damage against Jingliang, and I think in my opinion that would be a good turnaround for him. I would give him ample time to get back in the gym and get ready to face a tough opponent like me and go out there and put out an amazing fight.
“I want to go to war against a guy like Chimaev. I know for a fact that I can drag him into deep water and beat him. So, that’s what I’m looking to do against him.”
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