Khamzat Chimaev will face a "concerning" wait for a title shot with champion Leon Edwards fighting Kamaru Usman in a trilogy.
Chimaev has yet to compete since choking out late replacement Kevin Holland in September last year, after missing weight for his bumper clash with Nate Diaz. The Chechen star is eyeing a shot at the title in 2023 but after his struggle on the scales, many have suggested that he could make a switch to middleweight.
If the rising star elects to stay at 170lb, he could face a lengthy wait for a title shot, with Edwards recently crowned champion after beating Usman with a brutal late KO. And UFC legend Daniel Cormier is confused as to why Chimaev will not feature as part of the promotion's return to London on March 18 for UFC 286.
"For me, it's a big concern because now we're through the first quarter of the year, right?" Cormier told ESPN MMA when discussing his thoughts on what Chimaev should take on in 2023. "This [fight] is [in] March. So Khamzat is not in the first quarter. Who and when does he fight? He isn't in a position right now where he is a once-a-year type of guy.
"You need him at the beginning of the year, you need him at the end of the year if you want to still establish him as a guy that could challenge. I don't understand why Chimaev wouldn't be in London, even if it's at middleweight. Just fighting someone to keep him out there. He hasn't fought since September. I would like him to be back at 170 [pounds] against a guy like Colby Covington or a Belal Muhammad."
It remains unclear who Chimaev's next rival could be in the Octagon, but the 28-year-old eyed a shot at middleweight champion Alex Pereira before the end of 2022. He hoped to appear on one of the March pay-per-views but he has yet to be allocated a slot, and the 170lb contender has claimed that nobody wants to share the cage with him. "I'm going to fight somebody," he said. "I don't know who, they change opponents all the time, every week I have a new opponent.
Who do you think Khamzat Chimaev should fight next? Let us know in the comments section below.
"But nobody wants to fight. The guys speak a lot of trash talk, a lot of s*** about me and, 'I want to fight you, I want to fight you', but when it comes to the fight and signing a contract, they always want to run away. I'm always ready, we'll see what's going to happen now. I think we'll be, hopefully, in Vegas in March, we'll see but I don't know who.
"I'm the next for a title, who are these guys going to fight? Alex Pereira had a 6-1 record, he lost against a s*** guy who is not in the UFC - I never lost in my life. UFC don't want it, the guy don't want it, what am I going to do? If the guys run away from me, just give me somebody, I'm ready."
