Khamzat Chimaev backed by ex-UFC champion to dethrone Alex Pereira in rumored title fight
12/20/2024 12:12 PM
Khamzat Chimaev’s old rival Robert Whittaker is backing him to move up in weight yet again and win UFC gold.
The controversial Swedish star brutally submitted Whittaker at UFC 308, but lost out on a shot at Dricus Du Plessis’ middleweight belt to Sean Strickland. Now, with social media rumors circulating around a potential move up to light-heavyweight to face Alex Pereira, he is receiving an unlikely backing.
Chimaev is undefeated thus far in his professional MMA career, but has been inactive due to health issues and visa troubles. He has also fought as low as welterweight before, and has never made the substantial jump up to 205lb.
- Who is Alex Pereira?Get to know the MMA brawler as he lands yet another massive KO at UFC 307
Khamzat Chimaev rumored to be getting a shot at Alex Pereira’s title
After it emerged that Dricus Du Plessis would face Sean Strickland at UFC 312 in Sydney, questions began to emerge around Khamzat Chimaev’s future. He’s been on a seemingly one fight a year schedule for the past few years since encountering issues entering America and battling health problems.
However, in the past day fans on social media have attached themselves to a seemingly unfounded rumor that he might be getting a shot at light-heavyweight gold. This is despite his never having fought at the weight and boss Dana White’s apprehension about fighters moving up multiple weights.
The one saving grace for this theory is the speed at which Pereira has dominated the entire 205lb division. There is only one contender in the top five whom he hasn’t knocked out already; Magomed Ankalaev.
Alex Pereira appears to dismiss Magomed Ankalaev challenge
While it had seemed like Pereira was on a collision course with Ankalaev, plans look to have changed. After his win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 firmly established his spot atop the division, it looked to be the obvious fight to make.
However, Pereira has recently taken to social media to tell fans that he doesn’t expect to face the Russian in his next fight. He shared a video to Instagram showing fight highlights and teasing his next title defence, which he captioned alongside a crying emoji: “"It won't be Ankalaev!”
Ankalaev has been ruthless in his pursuit of Pereira and the light-heavyweight title, but it now seems that he will have to wait even longer.
Robert Whittaker backs Khamzat Chimaev to beat Alex Pereira
Should Chimaev get the shot at the gold up at light-heavyweight, it seems that he has quite a few backers. Many fans on social media have made their feelings clear that his dominant wrestling will make him a serious challenge for Pereira, whose kickboxing has landed him all of his UFC wins.
One man who has experienced Chimaev’s pressure first hand is former middleweight world champion Robert Whittaker, who said during a recent episode of the MMAArcade podcast that Chimaev would win “easily”.
“Not easily,” he confirmed, before adding that “I don’t think that unless the heavyweight strength changes the dynamic. Chimaev will get the takedown and it’s just that he’s good at what he does and plays into his strengths.
“But let’s say hypothetically Chimaev slows down, gasses a little bit, Pereira won’t. He can strike asleep, dead tired, he’s been doing it his whole life and he’ll kill Chimaev, it won’t be like that Usman-Chimaev fight where he was outboxing him a bit after he got tired. It will be a slaughter. But does it go that far?”
- Who is Dricus Du Plessis?Meet the UFC brawler putting South Africa on the MMA map
