“It would be tricky. I would be firing those kicks down the middle like you would not believe. I do not think my right foot would touch the mat. He’s a tough guy."
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The former light heavyweight champion answered a few questions from fans when he stood on stage as a guest combatant ahead of UFC 275 in Singapore, with former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Bachowicz. After witnessing Chimaev and Gilbert Burns put up a bout of the year contender, one enquiring fan asked Robert Whittaker how he thought a fight between himself and Khamzat Chimaev might play out.
The former middleweight champion laughed at the question before responding: “It would be tricky. I would be firing those kicks down the middle like you would not believe. I do not think my right foot would touch the mat. He’s a tough guy. I’ve fought wrestlers before, though; I fought Yoel Romero. He’s a silver medallist, granted, he’s not that sort of type of grappling game, but I guess that’s something really haven’t thought about and have to try and digest when we get their sort of thing.”
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After missing to beat middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for the second time, Whittaker will meet Marvin Vettori in the co-main event of the UFC’s maiden event in Paris, France. Vettori is in the same boat as the others. Both fighters’ title hopes would suffer a huge hit if they were to lose. For Whittaker, he and Chimaev are distanced by one weight class for the time being. Due to Chimaev’s objective towards capturing both welterweight and middleweight championship, the possibility of the two merging doesn’t seem to be far.
The bout was originally set to take place at UFC 275 in Singapore. The fight, however, was called off due to Whittaker’s injuries. The fight has been postponed for UFC Fight Night Paris, which takes place in September. The UFC Fight Night Paris schedule fills up and gets more interesting for fight fans as time goes on. Another bout now on the programme is Ciryl Gane vs. Tai Tuivasa. This will be the first and most likely not the last time the UFC holds a show in France. Due to MMA legal issues, France was unable to host the event.
Stephen Thompson declines the quick turnaround fight and wants Usman next.
