Renowned MMA coach Firas Zahabi is convinced that Khamzat Chimaev is the greatest middleweight of all time.
‘Borz’ put together one of the most dominant performances in title fight history at UFC 319, logging more than 21 minutes of control time against ex-titleholder Dricus Du Plessis.
The fight itself left many fans frustrated with the lack of action, but for Zahabi, it was a performance befitting of a GOAT.
“Khamzat is the greatest middleweight ever,” Zahabi said via the Tristar Gym YouTube channel. “I could put him against anyone in the middleweight division, and I’d pick Khamzat any day. Adesanaya, DDP, Anderson Silva in his prime, forget about it. None of them can hold a candle to him.. He’s the Khabib of the middleweight division.”
Not Everyone appreciated Khamzat Chimaev’s Grappling display at UFC 319
Of course, not everyone was as thrilled as Zahabi was regarding Chimaev’s wrestle-heavy attack in Chicago.
One-time UFC title challenger Paulo Costa, who has been very open about his dislike of Chimaev in recent months, absolutely shredded the Chechen’s performance.
“This is a show. This is entertainment,” Costa told Ariel Helwani. “This kind of fight, and fighter, has a lot of potential to kill this business.
“This surprised me after, because at the press conference after the fight, Dana (White) was (saying), ‘OK, he did amazing.’ No, he didn’t, man. He did horrible. This is horrible for the watchers. This is not good. People will watch something else. They will not watch these guys hugging each other for 25 minutes.”
Whether you appreciated the dominance on display or were bored out of your mind, there’s no denying that Chimaev appears to have a stranglehold on the middleweight division, and it may be years before someone cracks the code, if ever.
