Khamzat Chimaev didn’t hide his frustration when he heard about UFC CEO Dana White’s title shot plans for new middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis. Recalling the promotion’s earlier promise of a title shot, the Russian fighter urged the executive to keep his word.
The middleweight division has a new champion after Du Plessis defeated Sean Strickland via split decision at UFC 297 last weekend. Unsurprisingly, the South African has become the latest target of the division’s fighters, including Chimaev, who immediately called him out. “Stillknocks,” however, appears uninterested in the challenge and instead wants Israel Adesanya next.
This, nonetheless, is not the only problem for Chimaev who wants to push his champion aspirations: even White appears reluctant to give him the title shot. To recall, the company announced that the fight between “Borz” and Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 was the No. 1 contender fight for the middleweight title. However, despite winning, the match resulted in an injury, allowing Du Plessis to take the shot and win the title.
Now that he’s recovering, the Chimaev wants to claim the title fight the UFC promised to him. However, it seems it is no longer the path the company wants to take, with White saying it is still unknown who will be the division’s next title challenger. The 29-year-old expressed his disappointment over the matter.
“They promised me after the [Kamaru Usman] fight that I would fight next for the title. Now, I heard Dana White say, ‘I don’t think Khamzat is next for the title.’ That’s bulls***, man,” Chimaev said on ESPN. “If you promised me something, you have to answer for it. I’m a guy who’s honest with my word; I don’t care if it’s some president or someone else. If he gives me his word, he has to answer for that.”
This case is not new to the promotion, with Belal Muhammad experiencing the same with the title shot promised to him. As shared by “Remember The Name,” he was told that he would be next to challenge Leon Edwards, but the champ has no interest in fighting him. And just like Chimaev’s case, the promotion executive remains mum about Muhammad’s shot despite the fighter believing “Dana is not a man to go against his word.”
