Were you impressed by Khamzat Chimaev performance?

[Paul E Gensinger]

It shows you how high the expectations are for him. People thought he would walk through Usman?? has anyone in the sport ever walked through Usman??

Maybe Usman has more in the tank left than most of us thought. (which makes Leon Edwards better than we thought).

 

[AdamWarlock]

my guess is covid did fuck his lung up, there was a picture of him coughing up blood a couple years ago

you don't recover 100 percent on that

there's a lot of tough opponents for him in 185, i do think he takes down strickland easily and have his way with him.

 

[PurpleDrank]

Im not sure people really put Khamzats career so far in perspective. Hes been doing mma for 6 years. He didn't look good on the feet but I also dont think he looked as bad as people thought. He showed he can fight well from both stances. Guys 6 years in dont show that. Im guessing the injury played a factor in his output but his rhythm looked solid, from both stances. One thing that does concern me is his lack of proper devlopment. Hes been very inactive recently, and that isnt conducive to proper development. It may not matter as much because he is such a freak. However you could see in the fight his lack of experience at times. All in all though we should remember he is 6 years in so far.

 

[chardog]

usman has never been manhandled like that ever, and a top guy, boohoo, khamzat hasnt figured out how to finish a top guy, but it's not like he's going to get worse, the guy hasnt even peaked.

 

[Cartiac]

Not at all, his big middleweight debut was against a welterweight straight off the couch and showed he has no idea how to actually fight on the ground. That was the most boring 5 minutes of doggy position I have ever watched.

 

[ArmanHypeTrain]

Very impressed with that first round performance. Nobody has every done that to Usman. Not impressed at all with the last 2 rounds, poor cardio, did enough to win in my eyes but anyone who can survive that first round has a very good chance in my opinion.

 

[NoStoneUnturned]

Im not sure people really put Khamzats career so far in perspective. Hes been doing mma for 6 years. He didn't look good on the feet but I also dont think he looked as bad as people thought. He showed he can fight well from both stances. Guys 6 years in dont show that. Im guessing the injury played a factor in his output but his rhythm looked solid, from both stances. One thing that does concern me is his lack of proper devlopment. Hes been very inactive recently, and that isnt conducive to proper development. It may not matter as much because he is such a freak. However you could see in the fight his lack of experience at times. All in all though we should remember he is 6 years in so far.

In the end it is a very good win for Khamzat but I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how I feel about that fight. Khamzat beats a former champ, however the champ is a WW and only had ten days to prepare. Khamzat dominates round one with superior position, however, he doesn't do any damage and never had Kamaru in real danger. Rounds two and three are well, boring. Kamaru looked to land the better shots standing. Khamzat looked more tired than he should have at moments. I don't know, just a weird fight, but I'm aware sometimes things just aren't pretty.

 

[Givvee]

Of course, tt's going to be way harder to simply pick up, throw and choke out the top guys, at 185, there are some heavy handed, strong dudes, Costa, Dolidze, Vettori, would give him fits, not like he couldn't win those fights, but way harder. Strickland is going to be really interesting with his pressure and boxing.

 

[-Sideways-]

Fought 2 rounds with a broken left hand and still took Usman down every single round. The same Usman D1 Colby was too scared to wrestle. I'm impressed.

 

[Shano123]

Why would it have been 5? The original Khamzat-Costa fight wasn’t 5 rounds, there was no title on the line and Usman was short notice.

As to the thread question—no, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Khamzat has terrible holes in his striking and his cardio is kind of suspect. These flaws show up any time he fights elite competition.

.

So burns v belal was 5 rounds but this fight can't be?

 

[Craig Hogg]

I'd like to see Khamzat train at a better gym, especially to help his striking.

 

[Adamant]

He won the fight 30-27. I don't care what those damn judges said.

 

[brakkkop]

Islam would kill khamzat, khamzat has no sambo background.

 

[Mentallooser]

Yes. He beat someone who has a 97% TDD rate, with his wrestling. He isn't a finished product, and I think he probably will always have issues with stamina, just mechanically. I was very impressed though, yes.

 

[NoSmilez]

I believe Khamzat isn't quite ready for a title. He is a bit of a front runner. I don't think it's a real cardio issue. It's the pace that he sets in his fights.

 

[Conan the K-9]

We need the 155 AbuDhabiweight champ to check his brown belt.
Usman was able just wait and stall, finally nullify all his attempts in the first round. Not even one real submission attempt, that was embarrassing.

But he also exposed that Usman has zero sweeps from bottom, anyone with any hip movement would have gotten out of there second and third round.
He is not going to look good against any real MW who can grapple and/or just stand up. Roman, Paulo, Marvin, Rob and Dricus are all horrible matchups for him. But this is old news already since the Burns fight.

 

[Conan the K-9]

Nobody cares... if there's an injury during a fight, it's his own problem, whether it's true or not.

Ciryl Gane broke his hand (not speculation, certified) against Tuivasa and still won by KO.

This, and Costa broke his hand against Rockhold and got a ton of shit because he did not finish him…

 

[Gregoire1]

Most interesting question: how he will looked in his first 5 round fight?

 

[Peli]

Was expecting better cardio after the first

I think he overtrains or covid really fucked his lungs up

lol its not covid brother, He's never really been in a tough fight that lasted outside of maybe the first two rounds. He's not a finisher on the ground, so he doesn't know how to piece it together. If he grew up doing sambo or bjj, he probably finishes usman in the first round but he didn't.

 

[ExitLUPin]

Impressed by round 1

Unimpressed by rounds 2 and 3