Outside Source
Chimaev has only gone the distance thrice 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 decision win over Burns in 2022. Meanwhile, “Borz” earned a majority decision win over Usman, which many believe could have gone the other way in a five-round fight.
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Chimaev recently revealed that the Usman fight was harder than the Burns fight. While Chimaev doesn’t find the actual fight hard, it is the training camp that takes a toll. Chimaev had just shifted to Abu Dhabi from the Allstars Training Center in Sweden ahead of his clash against Usman. With only a few friends around and the lack of a proper team, training for the Usman matchup was hard for Chimaev.
Unfamiliar Surroundings
“Every fight is hard because you train hard,” Chimaev said at a recent seminaf. “In the cage it’s not crazy hard. 15 minutes, 25 minutes, it goes fast in the cage. But because I moved from Sweden to Abu Dhabi before Usman’s fight, that’s why it was 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 up to light heavyweight to challenge Alex Pereira for the title.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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