After his UFC 319 title win over Dricus Du Plessis, Khamzat Chimaev looks relatively unbeatable in the middleweight division.
On Saturday night, Khamzat Chimaev finally fulfilled what seemed like an inevitability when he first debuted in the UFC when he won the middleweight title at UFC 319.
The Chechen went on to utterly dominate Dricus Du Plessis over five rounds, silencing the doubters who claimed he didn’t have the cardio past two rounds.
And just hours after his title win, UFC boss Dana White claimed that he could make his first title defense sooner rather than later, stating that he is interested in adding him to the UFC 321 card in Abu Dhabi.
Kamaru Usman reveals who he thinks will give Chimaev the toughest fight
Throughout his UFC tenure so far, Chimaev has looked relatively unbeatable, despite his close fights against Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman.
Many fans believe that if his fight against Usman at UFC 294 was five rounds, he would’ve gone on to suffer his first defeat.
And with that, following Chimaev’s title win on Saturday, Usman shared his instant reaction on X, reminding fans of how close his fight against ‘Borz’ was.
Although the middleweight division is seemingly in one of the best positions it has been in throughout recent years, and according to Israel Adesanya, ‘in good hands’, there might not be a contender who can dethrone Chimaev.
However, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ has commented on who he thinks could give the newly crowned champion the toughest fight.
“That’s tough to say man. There’s talent right now in that middleweight division, (Anthony) Fluffy Hernandez, I love what he’s doing so far,” Usman said on the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.
“You can see it, when you start to, and that’s what I like about him, when you start to taste success a little bit, you really start to bite down and want more and more, and that’s what we’re seeing from Hernandez, he’s getting better and better each and every time he gets in there. He’s going far, definitely,” Usman continued.
Anthony Hernandez is currently riding an eight fight win streak with a recent submission win over Roman Dolidze, rising in the middleweight rankings.
Who Usman thinks Chimaev will fight next
Despite Hernandez’s win streak, it seemed likely that the winner of Nassourdine Imavov vs Caio Borralho would fight for the title next, however, with Chimaev potentially returning in October, it’s unlikely that it will be the winner of that fight.
And with that, the former middleweight champion believes that Reinier De Ridder could be Chimaev’s first challenger, considering the timing and his recent win over Robert Whittaker.