UFC legend Urijah Faber has named a fighter who he believes could serve as a big threat to UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.
As we know, Khamzat Chimaev is the king of the middleweight division – and he’s teasing the idea of making the shift up in weight to 205 pounds. While nobody really knows what exactly is going to happen there, we can all see that he’s chasing greatness, and he’s chasing the big fights.
Of course, at middleweight, there are still some interesting names for Khamzat Chimaev to face off against. Nassourdine Imavov seems to be the leading contender at this moment in time but with a division like this one, it’s understandable to see why ‘Borz’ is more intrigued by a showdown with Alex Pereira at light heavyweight.
In a recent podcast, Urijah Faber gave his thoughts on who could give Khamzat Chimaev problems.
Urijah Faber on Khamzat Chimaev
“I think it comes down to mentality, not technique with him,” Faber said of Chimaev on the JAXXON Podcast. “What I see with him is a guy that’s got some amazing physical gifts. He’s 100 percent in on his game plan, that’s very powerful. That’s hard to fight.
“When everybody else is fighting with all these different disciplines and you’re going to go in there with one and you’re 100 percent committed, and you’re young, durable, hungry, believes he can beat anybody, that’s hard to beat.”
“Anthony Hernandez, he’s always had a gas like Cain Velasquez had a gas tank,” Faber said. “It’s like the Mexican guys with the big f*cking bodies have big lungs or something. He can just go, go, go. But now he’s got Eliot Kelly who’s a high-level wrestler and a high-level jiu-jitsu player, he’s got Ryan Loder who’s an All-American wrestler.
“All this big hype with ‘Fluffy’ has come in the last two years. He’s made massive gains with – they call it the grappling boys. They come in and they have all these big guys, and they just do rounds. He’s got high-level training that’s taken his game to the next level. I know he believes in himself.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
