Khamzat Chimaev: Kamaru Usman tougher fight than Gilbert Burns

Khamzat Chimaev found it difficult to train for his fight against Kamaru Usman. Chimaev has only gone the distance three times in his career – against Usman, Gilbert Burns and Dricus Du Plessis. While Chimaev dominated Du Plessis to win the middleweight title, Usman and Burns made him look human. Chimaev was cut open en route to his unanimous victory over Burns in 2022. Meanwhile, “Borz” earned a majority decision win over Usman that many believe could have gone the other way in a five-round fight.

Chimaev recently revealed that the Usman fight was tougher than the Burns fight. While Chimaev doesn’t find the actual fight tough, it’s the training camp that takes its toll. Chimaev had just moved to Abu Dhabi from the Allstars Training Center in Sweden ahead of his match against Usman. With only a few friends around and the lack of a good team, training for the Usman match was difficult for Chimaev.

Unknown environment

“Every fight is difficult because you train hard,” Chimaev said recently at a seminar. “In the cage it’s not that crazy. 15 minutes, 25 minutes, in the cage it goes fast. But because I moved from Sweden to Abu Dhabi before the Usman fight, it made it harder for me to train. I didn’t have a good team around me, just some friends. That’s why that fight was difficult for me.”Chimaev won the middleweight title against Du Plessis at UFC 319 last August. Chimaev is now teasing a move to light heavyweight to challenge Alex Pereira for the title.