Dana White recently announced fights for the UFC’s much-anticipated debut in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Headlined by a number one contender middleweight bout between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev, UFC Saudi Arabia is a stacked fight card on par with a PPV event.
The UFC community is all riled up to see the fight between Whittaker and Chimaev. Will Whittaker fight for a title again or will Chimaev keep his undefeated record intact? Michael Bisping, Joe Rogan, and others have provided a pre-fight analysis of the fight.
Michael Bisping talks on Khamzat Chimaev vs Robert Whittaker
Michael Bisping, the former UFC middleweight champion and current commentator, revealed his thoughts on the fight on his YouTube show. Bisping, who fought and became champion blind in one eye, did not think of the matchup as easy for Chimaev.
“One thing Robert Whittaker’s not going to do is run out of gas. The obvious thing is Khamzat always gasses”, said Bipsing. As he stated, Whittaker has been in five-round fights against Israel Adesanya, Yoel Romero(x2), Kelvin Gastelum, and Darren Till. Whittaker’s two fights with Romero were wars. The other five-round fights were technical matchups.
On the other hand, Chimaev’s longest fights were his recent victory at UFC 294 over Kamaru Usman and his fight against Gilbert Burns at UFC 273. Chimaev was visibly tired by the end of both fights, even though he won. It needs to be noted that his UFC 294 fight was at middleweight and his UFC 273 fight was at welterweight.
“5 rounds against somebody like Robert Whittaker. If [Khamzat] can’t finish [Robert] early, that could be a disastrous night for him in Saudi Arabia”, Bisping gave his prediction for the fight. Since Chimaev was tired by the end of three rounds, both at welterweight and middleweight, Bisping’s prediction is spot on.
However, Whittaker was defeated in the middleweight division by Israel Adesanya and Dricus du Plessis, respectively. Both fights ended in a second-round knockout. In his recent fight at UFC 298 against Paulo Costa, he was rocked by the end of the first round and would’ve been finished if there was more time.
On top of his wrestling skills, Chimaev is known for his powerful strikes. In his third fight in the UFC, the Chechen fighter delivered a devastating knockout to Gerald Meerschaert, landing a powerful punch that ended the fight in a lightning-fast 17 seconds. He also delivered a powerful uppercut that knocked out Ikram Aliskerov, the current UFC middleweight. That is the only defeat in Aliskerov’s professional MMA career.
Therefore, as Bisping said, it is very likely that Chimaev will win the fight if it ends in the earlier rounds. However, if it goes the distance, it is very unlikely for Khamzat Chimaev to win a five-round decision against the affectionately called ‘Bobby Knuckles’ or ‘The Reaper’.
Joe Rogan shares candid thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev vs Robert Whittaker
Joe Rogan, the UFC color commentator and comedian, also shared his thoughts about the fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker. Rogan felt the matchup is stacked against Chimaev, even though betting lines say otherwise.
“[Whittaker] is a real 185er, as opposed to… they gave him Kamaru Usman. Kamaru didn’t have a chance to prepare for that”, said Rogan. Kamaru Usman was not the original opponent for Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294, it was Paulo Costa. Usman, a welterweight, replaced Costa on 10 days’ notice but ultimately fell to the Chechen via majority decision.
“[Kamaru] was winning in the 3rd round. If that was a 5-round fight who knows how the f*** that fight would’ve went?” said Rogan about the fight at UFC 294. Rogan only does domestic PPVs and thus was not in the commentary booth at UFC 294, which was in the UAE.
Like Rogan said, Chimaev could not maintain his pace throughout 3 rounds against Usman. Chimaev took down Usman in the first round and dominated the former welterweight champion. All three judges had it 10-8 for Chimaev in the first round, as per the verdict MMA.
However, he began to slow down from the second round onward. Nonetheless, Khamzat Chimaev eked out a majority decision even though two out of three judges had the second and third rounds for Usman.
Who do you think will win the UFC Saudi Arabia main event fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker? Leave your prediction below!
