Just weeks out from his middleweight title defense, Khamzat Chimaev has been pitched for a light heavyweight title fight.
In just a few weeks time, Khamzat Chimaev makes the first defense of his middleweight title when he takes on Sean Strickland in the UFC 328 main event.
‘Borz’ is being backed to dominate the former champion by the majority of the MMA world having already gotten the better of Strickland in their previous training sessions.
And with the Chechen continuing to grow in star power, his former opponent Kamaru Usman has pitched him to fight for the light heavyweight title.
Usman suggests Chimaev vs former champion for light heavyweight title fight
Earlier this month, Carlos Ulberg became the new light heavyweight champion when he knocked out Jiri Prochazka in the UFC 327 main event.
During his title-winning performance, ‘Black Jag’ unfortunately suffered a devastating knee injury, tearing his ACL within the first half of the round.
The 35-year-old underwent surgery in Las Vegas and is expected to be out for at least a year, leaving the light heavyweight title in a precarious situation, again.
And with that, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ has pitched that his former opponent goes on to compete for the interim or vacant light heavyweight title, stating that Ulberg should consider vacating it.
“Chimaev has been talking about it the whole time, he wants to move up,” Usman said on the Pound 4 Pound podcast.
“If Chimaev goes out there and defends his title and he decides he’s done with that division and says ‘let’s go up’ and Ulberg is potentially out for 9-12 months, I think business as usual,” Usman continued.
The light heavyweight title has been somewhat plagued over the last few years with several champions, including Prochazka, having vacated the title due to injury.
The former welterweight champion believes that Ulberg should vacate the title to allow for the division to continue moving forward.
“An interim title, or vacate the title. Khamzat Chimaev (against Magomed Ankalaev), why not? Does it not make sense? That’s a fire matchup right there. I like it.”
Magomed Ankalaev lost his title in his last outing against Alex Pereira and he has been teasing a potential clash against Khalil Rountree Jr next with rumors surfacing that it could take place at UFC Baku on June 27.
Despite that, Joe Rogan has pitched his idea for an interim light heavyweight title fight which includes recent debutant in the weight class, Paulo Costa.