Should Chimaev fight for an interim MW belt?

[Pequeño Corey]

@188912345

“Will usually earn you a TS”

Nope. This isn’t 100% merit based. Burns wasn’t even promised a TS if he won. Khamzat claims he was told it was for a TS, but as far as I know, this has never been confirmed. Provide receipts and I’ll concede the point.



Regarding a TS with Strickland:
-Strickland didn’t want the fight. Said Chimaev didn’t earn it. This is debatable.

-Chimaev couldn’t have made the walk when DDP was ready, so based on this alone, it’s a non starter. You sound like you’re in favor of not holding up divisions, so why should Strickland have waited when DDP was ready to go?

Regarding the visa; I guess we’ll see. Just because Dana said he wants a fight in the US doesn’t mean the visa issues are resolved or that they never existed.


RegardingInjury/illness-situation; we’ll see. I hope his team change helped with this issue. I’ll believe it when he stops pulling out of fights or fights more than once a year.

Next point; there isn’t a backlog or log jam at MW. Ciao needs one more and Hazmat is the only guy hanging out there waiting for a TS.

And my last sentence is not an allusion to hazmat ducking. It means that if they decided to give hazmat an interim, fast forward and DDP was ready to unify but hazmat wasn’t ready, they could simply let DDP fight someone else and defend his undisputed belt.

 

[Alpha_T83]

That's absurd. DDP just fought in February. That was 2 months ago. It's way too early for an interim title fight. And no, the HW interim title from years ago doesn't count as precedent. Francis Ngannou and the UFC were in a contract dispute, and they were preparing to strip him of the title. That's a very unique situation.

Unless DDP is going to be out for 10+ months, an interim title fight is nonsense.

 

[188912345]

@188912345

“Will usually earn you a TS”

Nope. This isn’t 100% merit based. Burns wasn’t even promised a TS if he won. Khamzat claims he was told it was for a TS, but as far as I know, this has never been confirmed. Provide receipts and I’ll concede the point.



Regarding a TS with Strickland:
-Strickland didn’t want the fight. Said Chimaev didn’t earn it. This is debatable.

-Chimaev couldn’t have made the walk when DDP was ready, so based on this alone, it’s a non starter. You sound like you’re in favor of not holding up divisions, so why should Strickland have waited when DDP was ready to go?

Regarding the visa; I guess we’ll see. Just because Dana said he wants a fight in the US doesn’t mean the visa issues are resolved or that they never existed.


RegardingInjury/illness-situation; we’ll see. I hope his team change helped with this issue. I’ll believe it when he stops pulling out of fights or fights more than once a year.

Next point; there isn’t a backlog or log jam at MW. Ciao needs one more and Hazmat is the only guy hanging out there waiting for a TS.

And my last sentence is not an allusion to hazmat ducking. It means that if they decided to give hazmat an interim, fast forward and DDP was ready to unify but hazmat wasn’t ready, they could simply let DDP fight someone else and defend his undisputed belt.

An undefeated guy on a decently long winstreak gets to fight a ranked guy, dominates him (vs Jingliang).
He then gets to fight #2, who only has lost to the champ at WW, and wins in a FOTY contender.

People have gotten titleshots for a lot less.
Topuria got one from beating Emmett, Strickland got one when his highest ranked win was a split decision vs Hermansson, who was outside top 5, when his last win was vs an unranked guy. When he had recent losses to both Pereira and Cannonier and a lot of split decisions.
Umar got his titleshot from beating Sandhagen, who was #3 or #4?
Poirier got one from beating BSD, on a 1 fight winstreak, getting KO'D the fight before that.

To ask a contender to beat #1 after already beating #2 feels quite rare.
To ask him to fight backwards while being on a winstreak and having just defeated #2 also doesn't make much sense to me.
It's kind of like the Belal-route to the title, which isn't the norm for an exciting fighter, but I could see how his injuries/illnesses became a factor in why they decided not to give it to him.

Usually it goes; winstreak, get a ranked guy, win, get a top 10 guy, win, get a top 5 guy, win, then fight for the title.

Strickland didn't want the fight and Khamzat needed surgery on his hand, so Dricus getting the shot was fine since Dricus had earned his titleshot by beating Rob already.
I'm talking about Strickland getting the rematch after beating Costa when Khamzat finished Rob in round 1. That's something that I disagreed with.

Imavov is very deserving of a titleshot considering the streak he's on and the way he finished Izzy. Caio needs one more, agreed, but he's finding it hard to find an opponent.

To be clear, I'm not in favor of an interim right now unless Dricus is out for some time (3-4 months+).
Likewise, if Khamzat wins the interim belt vs Imavov in July and Dricus is ready in December, but Khamzat needs 1-2 months extra, it would be fine to wait.
If Khamzat would be out for longer than that, just make an interim title fight and have them unify when he's healed up.

I think it's better because it keeps the division moving along faster.

It also gives Khamzat a chance to be more active now when he seems to be healthy.

Thanks for taking the time to make a good reply.

 

[richardjohnson]

No and I don’t agree with any of the poll options. If any of this is true and Dricus is out for a considerable amount of time just make Khamzat vs Imavov as a title eliminator. Interim belt is just a glorified #1 contender spot anyway.

Khamzat needs to get in the cage, he’s wasting the prime of his career sitting out.

 

[sdpdude9]

Fuck interim belts. If he wants to fight make it a #1 contender fight. Don’t need fake belts every time a fight doesn’t quite line up.

 

[witt1021]

False

as per homeland security it is 100% true.

 

[usernamee]

DDP wants Chimmy to get another tough fight to hopefully get some more data on him

 

[gentel]

That's absurd. DDP just fought in February. That was 2 months ago. It's way too early for an interim title fight. And no, the HW interim title from years ago doesn't count as precedent. Francis Ngannou and the UFC were in a contract dispute, and they were preparing to strip him of the title. That's a very unique situation.

Unless DDP is going to be out for 10+ months, an interim title fight is nonsense.

Yeah good point tbh, I was in favor and it felt like it had been longer since the Strickland rematch was lame, but since it's only been two months, gotta agree that an interim is wrong

 

[Neck&Neck]

Chimmy deserves nothing
He is use to waiting
Inshallah

 

[Deleted member 609094]

I despise talks of "interim". It should be reserved for absolutely time-consuming issues.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Why? At this moment he seems to be injury-free and ready to go.

Easiest solution if Dricus comes back and Khamzat gets injured before their potential fight, would be to let Dricus fight Caio or someone for an interim again.

This is all just if it's even true that Dricus is injured at this moment.

You're arguing for a position that would stall MW longer, because you think Khamzat would stall longer if he won? Because you don't like him?

If they stripped DDP and made an interim when he couldn't (if true) defend in about 6 months, why wouldn't they strip Khamzat and make another interim fight if he couldn't defend within a year?

Depends a bit how badly DDP maybe injured, if the fight say gets pushed back 1-2 months I maybe more inclined to wait but if its going to be more than that yeah I'd probably preffer to see Khamzat fight whilst he's fit.

If Khamzat then gets injured then DDP fights someone else instead, no rule which says the champ needs to wait for an injured interim champ.

 

[Clark Rogers]

Wait to see what's really going on with DDP before making any decisions.

Also keep in mind you're opening the door for Chimaev to win, take one of his extended health issue breaks, and need yet another interim.

I think we A) wait to see if the rumors are true, then B) see if it's an injury that even warrants thinking about an interim, and not just a reschedule.

 

[188912345]

Yeah good point tbh, I was in favor and it felt like it had been longer since the Strickland rematch was lame, but since it's only been two months, gotta agree that an interim is wrong

Closer to 2.5 months ago.

I think they might make it an interim because they need something big to headline the PPV Khamzat and Dricus was supposed to headline. The interim belt will make it a "title fight".

And, because both Khamzat and Imavov have earned their titleshots by finishing Rob and Izzy.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

No man, interim shots are ridiculous like 95% of the time. Unless DDP is out for an extended time there shouldn't be an interim belt just because it helps sell fights

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

No,

Fuck these interm belts. #1 contender fight - if he is all that he and his fans think he is it should be a slam dunk win.