Khamzat Chimaev is waiting for a showdown against Sean Strickland for his first defense at UFC champion, but in the meantime, he’s more than happy to take out Colby Covington in a wrestling match.
That’s the message Chimaev sent on Saturday night after watching RAF 6 in Arizona where Covington appeared on stage and called out several potential opponents including Arman Tsarukyan, Kamaru Usman and Georges St-Pierre. But it was Chimaev who answered by offering his services to face Covington in the next
RAF event scheduled for March 28 in Tampa, Fla.
“Next RAF I will make American boy humble again,” Chimaev wrote on Twitter. “Colbiclown let’s go.”
Chimaev is recognized as one of the best wrestlers in the UFC and he’s no stranger to outside the box matches including his win over fellow UFC fighter Jack Hermansson in a freestyle match a few years ago.
For his part, Covington was an All-American wrestler in college and he dispatched Luke Rockhold in a shutout performance in his RAF debut back in Janaury.
But perhaps the bigger news coming out of Chimaev’s challenge was responding to a fan asking if he was injured.
Chimaev answered back with an interesting response, which probably won’t make UFC middleweight contender Nassourdine Imavov very happy at all.
“No, [I’m] waiting for Strickland,” Chimaev wrote in response.
While that’s far from an actual confirmation that Strickland is getting the next title shot, it definitely seems like that’s the fight Chimaev wants, and it’s tough to believe the UFC wouldn’t make it happen.
Strickland scored an impressive knockout over Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez in his most recent outing and immediately called out Chimaev for a fight. That led to some back-and-forth trash talk between the middleweights and given Strickland’s standing as one of the most talked about fighters on the entire UFC roster, he might just jump the line to face Chimaev next.
That likely puts Imavov back in line again despite a five-fight win streak in the division but right now it seems all signs are pointing towards Chimaev vs. Strickland happening next.
