“Cool. Let’s do that. It doesn’t matter,” the Australian told Submission Radio. “If they offer me this fight, so be it. I think it will be a good hard fight. I consider Khamzat a phenomenal fighter. He is very strong, just like me. I bet I’m a tough fight for him. It is not easy to box with me, and it is even more difficult to transfer and keep. So yes, it will be an interesting fight – a lot of people will be interested in it, and they will look forward to it.
At the same time, Whittaker is not aware that Chimaev was offered to fight him in Australia.
“I was not told his name. I don’t know, sometimes I get the impression that I live in the forest. People ask me ‘did you hear that, did you hear that’ and I have no idea what they’re even talking about. Nevertheless, this fight makes sense – Khamzat is a welterweight, but he is on the hype. If this fight is staged, it’s likely the UFC’s plan is for the winner to get a title shot. It suits me because I don’t want to sit around waiting to fight the winner of the rematch between Pereira and Adesanya. I want to fight and I beat the rest of the top guys in the division.”
An immediate middleweight title rematch between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya will headline UFC 287 in Miami on April 8.