Khamzat Chimaev completed the first step of building what could be a legendary legacy in the UFC this past Saturday when he won the middleweight title.
On Saturday night, Khamzat Chimaev completed what seemed like an inevitability ever since he debuted in the UFC in 2020, when he became the middleweight champion at UFC 319.
The Chechen went on to display a dominant performance against Dricus Du Plessis, controlling him for over 20 minutes of the fight, putting many doubts regarding his cardio to bed.
However, despite what was a dominant display, Chimaev received some criticism for his ‘boring’ style and at times was even booed by the crowd in attendance for the wrestling-heavy game plan.
And someone else that received very similar criticism throughout his legendary career in the UFC was Khabib Nurmagomedov, who Chimaev has drawn comparisons to for a while.
Khamzat Chimaev will create a better legacy than Khabib Nurmagomedov
Throughout his tenure in the sport, ‘The Eagle’ received criticism for his wrestling-heavy fight style, which was frowned upon by a more casual part of the UFC fanbase.
Despite that, he was widely supported by MMA purists who saw his skill set for what it was, a dominant cheat code.
Nurmagomedov will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time, arguably the greatest, having finished his career undefeated at 29-0.
However, something that hinders the Russian massively when it comes to the GOAT debate is the fact that he ended his career extremely prematurely.
The majority of Khabib’s career wins came from when he was building his name in the UFC, against let’s face it, not the greatest standard of competition.
And then when he finally became the champion, he retired after just three title defenses.
That is something Chimaev could do differently and then potentially, even go one better than what his Russian counterpart did.
If ‘Borz’ accumulates several title defenses at 185lbs, which at this point it seems likely that he will do, he then has the potential to move up to 205lbs to become a double champion, and that is something Khabib never did.
Could Chimaev become the first ever triple champion?
‘Borz’ has always made it clear that he would like to become the first ever UFC triple champion, and if it wasn’t for what would be a brutal weight cut down to 170lbs, I wouldn’t put it past him.
But even if the Chechen didn’t complete that incredible feat and instead just joined the group of fighters to win a title in two weight divisions, he could still build a better legacy than Khabib.
Unfortunately for Khabib, he fought in the era where going for double UFC titles wasn’t very common. But he then didn’t build the same sort of legacy as the likes of Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones by accumulating a lot of title defenses in his weight class.
And ultimately, that’s what lets ‘The Eagle’ down when it comes to his legacy, and after seeing Chimaev’s dominance and the similarities he has drawn to Khabib, he could actually finish his career in a better position.