Only one fighter can beat Adesanya at middleweight, believes Cejudo

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has not yet known an opponent in his division. But Henry Cejudo says there is one man who can dethrone him.

Adesanya defended his title against Robert Whittaker last Saturday at UFC 271, marking his fourth successful title defense. In doing so, the champion has cleaned out most of the division and has cut his teeth with fighters such as the aforementioned Whittaker, Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori and Yoel Romero.

Henry Cejudo presents Khamzat Chimaev

However, Henry Cejudo, an Olympic freestyle champion and former belt holder in two weight classes, sees one man who can playfully defeat the unstoppable Adesanya. That man, according to Cejudo, who is currently in the USA preparing Jiri Prochazka for his title fight, is welterweight division monster Khamzat Chimaev.

“That guy is a monster. His fight, his confidence, I’ve never seen that before,” Cejudo paid tribute to Chimaev on The Triple C & Schmo Show. “From what I’ve heard from a lot of people, this dude literally trains like no one has ever seen,” he said, describing the unconventional methods of the Chechen fighter currently based in Sweden.

Khamzat in the UFC

Khimaev is undefeated in MMA with a 10: 0 record so far, and in the UFC he has four wins from four fights, all by KO, landing just four strikes.

He was inducted into the biggest MMA organization in the world in July 2020, having two fights in ten days that he completely dominated. A month later, he then destroyed Gerald Meerschaert, the only UFC challenger to defeat Makhmud Muradov, in 17 seconds.

Then, although Chimaev dropped out of the fight scene for over a year due to contracting the coronavirus, he reappeared at UFC 267 Blachowicz vs. Teixeira in late October 2021, where he faced the experienced fighter Jingliang Li.

He demolished his Chinese opponent in the first round and once again found himself in the spotlight. In a matter of seconds he picked up his opponent and carrying him to the canvas he still managed to communicate with Dana White.

Out of the four fights mentioned, he spent 12 minutes and 54 seconds in the cage and an incredible 11 minutes and 56 seconds of that time controlling his opponents on the ground. Even Cejudo appreciated his wrestling ability.

“That’s why Khamzat is the one who can beat Adesanya,” Cejudo believes. “If he is primarily a wrestler, works hard and can control his opponent in such a way, I am convinced he will beat him handily,” he concluded his prediction.

Chimaev’s future

Although Chimaev is currently a Welterweight fighter, he has competed at Middleweight many times during his career and recently there have been reports of him destroying Welterweights in training.

As we recently informed you, after his successful defense of Adesanya, Chimaev took to his Twitter account to say that this fight would be easy money for him. He even predicted that he would destroy the current middleweight champion in the first round.

Khamzat is currently eyeing a fight with welterweight division number two Gilbert Burns. Although the bout has not been officially confirmed, all the world’s leading media outlets have agreed on it. If he wins his next fight, he would move closer to a title fight with Kamaru Usman. Thus, the fight with Adesanya is still in the stars, but fans would surely love to see it.

Source: The Triple C & Schmo Show, UFC, Sherdog