No. 8 ranked UFC middleweight, Hamzat Chimaev, who defeated Kamaru Usman in a challenger’s bout, explained why the next opponent for reigning champion, Sean Strickland, will not be him, but the division’s number two ranked fighter, Dricus Du Plessis.
“I got a call from my manager saying January,” Borz told Aslanbek Badaev in an interview. “But the manager himself didn’t agree with them, he said if you want to do this fight, and whoever wins, we’ll fight him. Because I have small injuries now, we treat these injuries, and still need to prepare for the fight. You can’t do it with injuries. Now it’s a month of rehabilitation, and then the preparation. After this fight it will be seen who will fight me. I remain the official challenger for the title”
“I had a dislocated finger, damaged ligaments and some infection in the cup. It’s much better now, but still the bone still needs to be checked – maybe the finger is not sitting right. I got injured at the end of the first round when I hit him in the head with my finger. After that my hand started to hurt, I couldn’t hold the grip. After that I was able to pass, but I didn’t have the confidence to do the clinch, because I had to work through the pain”
The Chechen fighter also gave his prediction for the title fight between Strickland and Du Plessis, which will headline UFC 297 in Toronto on Jan. 20.
“I think Strickland has the better chance, but Du Plessis is also a tough, tough guy. 60-40, maybe 50-50 even. Both interesting, weird styles they both have. I don’t really care who I fight. Dricus Du Plessis beat my close friend Darren Till, I’d like to get a rematch with him. And Sean and I have been working well in sparring. In fact, I won all sparring sessions with him, but now I need to show it in the cage. I want to prove to myself that I can beat him in the cage too”
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33143-khamzat-chimaev-otkazalsya-ot-boya-za-titul-ufc.html?rand=19907
