UFC superstar Khamzat Chimaev had one eye on the world of boxing on Saturday night.
Before Henry Cejudo suffered his third straight loss at UFC Seattle, the biggest boxing card of the year, headlined an undisputed light heavyweight rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, went down in Saudi Arabia.
Jake Paul slammed Martin Bakole’s team after watching him get KO’d by Joseph Parker in the co-main event.
In contrast, Khamzat Chimaev had nothing but nice things to say after the show came to its conclusion.
Khamzat Chimaev reacts to Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol II
In October, Beterbiev became the first four-belt light heavyweight champion ever by beating Bivol.
The 40-year-old picked up a majority decision win after 12 rounds of pulsating back-and-forth action.
Naturally, an immediate rematch was booked and the two men squared off in Riyadh on Saturday night.
The 175lb rivals once again battled to a majority decision, but this time Bivol did enough to get the nod from the ringside judges
Chimaev wanted to ensure that Beterbiev wasn’t too hard on himself after the first defeat of his professional boxing career.
‘Borz’ reminded his Russian compatriot of the historic things he’s achieved in a heartwarming social media post.
“Will always remain in the history of boxing @arturbeterbiev legend,” Chimaev captioned an image of the 21-1 boxing star holding a bunch of world titles.
What’s next for Khamzat Chimaev?
Chimaev choked out Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 in October to book his middleweight title shot.
First, the 30-year-old had to watch Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland rematch for 185lb gold at UFC 312.
‘DDP’ obliterated Strickland’s nose en route to a lopsided points victory in Sydney earlier this month.
“Biggest bulls— is this fight,” Chimaev tweeted after the UFC 312 main event reached its conclusion.
Du Plessis will take some time to recover before entering camp for a massive fight with Chimaev.
Exactly when they will clash remains a mystery, but they will certainly meet at some point this year.