Khamzat Chimaev will ‘drown’ against rising star following UFC 319 title win

Khamzat Chimaev is the new king of the UFC middleweight division, but one emerging contender thinks he can crack the code.

Chimaev turned in a stellar performance against Dricus du Plessis in the UFC 319 headliner. Going into the UFC middleweight title fight, many questioned Chimaev’s gas tank. As it turned out, “Borz” had no issue keeping control of du Plessis for five rounds. The result of Chimaev’s superb grappling was a unanimous decision win and his first UFC championship.

Not everyone was gushing over Chimaev’s showing, however. During a chat with Carlos Contreras Legaspi for ESPN Deportes, Anthony Hernandez made it clear that he feels he can solve the puzzle of the newly minted UFC Middleweight Champion.

https://twitter.com/CCLegaspi/status/1956975764286435480

“Congratulations to him,” Hernandez said. “It was a [expletive] pretty boring fight, I’m not going to lie. Call me for the fight. I can wrestle, I can do jiu-jitsu, I can stop all his [expletive], and I can shut him down. With my gas tank, I’ll drown him, I promise. I’ll make him [expletive] work. So, call me. Keep me in mind, guys and I think you guys will have a new [expletive] Mexican American champion.”

Hernandez is fresh off a fourth-round submission finish over Roman Dolidze. The victory extended “Fluffy’s” winning streak to eight. Some believe Hernandez’s style could make things interesting against Chimaev, given he has some grappling expertise. Whether or not it’ll be enough to thwart the relentless wrestling of “Borz” remains to be seen.

There are plenty of viable options for Chimaev’s first challenger. Reinier de Ridder could be next in line after defeating Robert Whittaker. One also can’t rule out the winner of Nassourdine Imavov vs. Caio Borralho getting dibs on a 185-pound title opportunity. Imavov and Borralho will collide in the main event of UFC Paris on Sept. 6.