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Nassourdine Imavov is the top contender for a middleweight title shot against Chimaev. However, the Dagestan-born Imavov (17-4) and the Chechen-born Chimaev are both reluctant to fight each other owing to their Caucasian roots. Chimaev is rallying for a light heavyweight title shot against Alex Pereira, who wants to move up to heavyweight.
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Muhammad believes Chimaev will fight Jiri Prochazka for the 205-pound title if Pereira moves up to heavyweight. Muhammad looks forward to that matchup, as he believes Chimaev’s wrestling will hold its own, not only at light heavyweight but also at heavyweight. Muhammad recalled a recent video where Chimaev took down former heavyweight champion Jon Jones while they were playfighting.
A Skill That Transcends Divisions
“Chimaev saying he doesn’t want to fight Imavov,” Muhammad said on YouTube. “It’s Chechnya-Dagestan, obviously there’s history behind that. They don’t want anything serious to happen with that. I know he is calling out Pereira, I am excited for either one of those fights… [Pereira] is going up to heavyweight, that’ll leave an opening at 205, where it could be Jiri against Chimaev, which I think would be a fun one for sure. I think Chimaev’s wrestling is good enough to go up to heavyweight if he wanted to. We’ve seen how he picked up Jon Jones recently.”
While Chimaev (15-0) used to originally fight at welterweight, several weight misses forced a move to middleweight. Chimaev says he will defend his middleweight title once before moving up to light heavyweight.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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