“You know I don’t like the guy, but it’s also about the fact that people don’t take him seriously anymore,” the Brazilian said while speaking to reporters in Anaheim. “He’s stopped fighting, he hasn’t beaten anyone in the middle division, not even the top-15, let alone the top contenders. How can you take this guy seriously? He barely beat Kamara Usman, who is out on ten days notice. Usman is a welterweight, and everyone saw that fight.”
“I like these confrontations between countries, cultures, but after I beat Whittaker, I don’t want to hear the name of Hamzat Chimaev. Fuck him to hell! He’s got to do something. He should beat someone in the top 10 middleweights, but I don’t think he’s capable of that. I wanted to fight him in Abu Dhabi, it didn’t happen, I was upset, but now I’m here and I’m fighting a guy who is significantly more skilled than him. Whittaker is better than him in everything, so, Chimaev shouldn’t fight for the title before me”
As a reminder, Hamzat Chimaev lost his spot in the UFC’s top ten middleweights this week, moving from ninth to eleventh in the rankings, and the fight between Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa will take place on February 17 at UFC 298 in Anaheim.