Khamzat “Borz” Chimaev is looking for a fight as always!
Which was among the few things he discussed today with interviewer Brett Okamoto from ESPN.
He touched on his last fight against Kevin Holland, interest in fighting Alex Pereira, the new middleweight champion, as well as the much awaited Colby Covington fight, which seems more plausible at welterweight, the hot topic of fighter pay and another possible move up in weight to light-heavyweight.
He touched on a lot of other topics, if you would like to see the whole video you can watch it here.
Chimaev seems to be eyeing the middleweight strap just as much with Alex Pereira as champ as he did Israel Adesanya. Immediately after the match he called for the fight with the newly crowned champ of the division.
Even mocking the champ in his photo with his freshly creased brown belt that he received for his grappling skills in the Adesanya fight at UFC 281. Putting “laughing emojis” under the picture.
He discussed how he does not think that Pereira deserves his brown belt after 3 years in MMA. Saying, “five years I get that belt“. Elaborating how he has submitted many black belts, Kevin Holland being one of them.
Quoting his coach by stating, “I think that’s all they give it like in McDonalds like when you buy something like Burgers“. Referring to Pereira receiving his brown belt so soon and Chimaev having to wait 5 years.
Chimaev added that beating Adesanya does not warrant a black belt because he is a striker, and he got dominated on the ground by Adesanya.
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Chimaev also stated he would love to go for Pereira on the Brazil card in January.
He then called for Covington in march after Pereira, or without Pereira. But according to Chimaev, Covington seems most likely his next match but still not sure because there seem to be a lot going on in negotiations, on Covingtons part.
Chimaev thinks that Colby will be an easier fight than Gilbert Burns, giving burns credit on his ground game. Where for Colby, he says, “Colby is no the same kind of guy, Colby I can take him down, submit him, I can knock him out“.
He also threw Belal Muhammads name in there. He has been climbing up the ranks and calling for Chimaev for a while now. So it seems Chimaev has many directions to go in.
One direction that we didn’t see coming so soon, was him aspiring to go for the light heavyweight division. He seems to be eyeing to be a replacement for the Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira 2 bout at UFC 282 in case something happens.
Among other things Chimaev talked about his last fight with Kevin Holland where he defeated him in the first round by submission.
He talked about his two new BMW’s that he bought after the Holland fight, which he was very happy about.
He also said how that was the most money he has made in his fighting career ever in one single match. Not specifying on the exact amount. We can only go by what he said in his interview with Megan Olivi here. Which was around 2 million he stated.
But, in this interview he did specify that he had to pay a lot in taxes, telling Brett, “everyone thinking when you get the one million dollar you get one million dollar. But its not that, you get like half of that“.
When asked about making more money in one night than his entire life, Khamzat remained humble telling Brett, “I dont think so much about money, so I am happy just how are my money [how my money is], so everyone likes good life as well, good cars, good life“.
He also talked about how he was almost homeless before and grateful for everything he had now saying to Brett, “I appreciate it like what Dana and the UFC did for me you know, a lot of guys talking about ufc dont give us good money and that“.
With his appreciation for the promotion, he touched on another issue that is hot this year, fighter pay. Khamzat seems to be confused with fighters and their problem with the UFC. Specifically touching on Ngannou’s issue expressing how he felt saying, “he was outside before” (“homeless” as we understand he meant). Following up to this comment saying, “he has to appreciate everything that happens with you. Just fight, fight, and money coming“.
Khamzat also added how it is early in the game for him now and plans on doing this for another 5-7 years making even more money.
