“I’ll fight anyone, anyone in the world,” Israel Adesanya once said, blazing the UFC scene with his KO debut. He was a man of his word as he went on to sweep the entire middleweight division, earning a spot in the list of the fiercest knockout artists ever. While he is retired, the real question is, will his moniker still hold against the current Middleweight Champion, Khamzat Chimaev?

A Chimaev versus Adesanya matchup is a fascinating clash of styles, which has the entire MMA fanbase debating over MMA eras and how their favorites stack against each other. But the reality is that this match will unfortunately never see the light of day. But we can dream. And that leads to one of the most nuanced hypotheticals ever: can prime Izzy beat prime Chimaev?

Prime Izzy vs Prime Chimaev – Strengths & Weaknesses

The Dagestani wrestler is just in his booming period, with his trajectory set to go uphill from here. The peak of Israel Adesanya’s career, however, was from 2019-2021.

With that in mind, the fantasy bout would bring two completely different skill sets inside the Octagon, with Adesanya’s crisp striking challenging Chimaev’s elite wrestling. But who gets to impose their game onto the other?

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‘The Last Stylebender,’ contrarily, stuck to one particular style to edge his wins: distance management with timed counters and powerful strikes. However, with most of the UFC wins coming via decision, Adesanya’s fights carried to all 5 rounds, which could potentially provide Chimaev more time to work with extended grappling exchanges, a territory where the fight can render dangerous for Izzy.

By contrast, Chimaev is up-and-coming with a promising UFC career. An undefeated MMA record and bagging the middleweight title within just 9 UFC fights is what truly sets his unrelenting, resilient persona apart from others. Moreover, with wins spread over both knockouts and submissions, Chimaev knows how to impose his pace the moment he steps inside the cage.

However, wrestling-based fighters rely heavily on closing in the distance and potentially risking inside the red striking zone, a distance where Adesanya thrives. His fight against Kevin Gastelum, who is an NJCAA wrestler not to forget, was a prime example of that, where, despite being cornered by Gastelum multiple times, Adesanya countered with powerful right hands and a total of 4 takedowns, the most in Izzy’s career to that point.

That goes on to prove Adesanya’s competence against even former wrestlers like Gastelum, and he utilizes distance control to his advantage, something that could rub off in the wrong way against Chimaev’s chain-wrestling. Against the Dagestani menace, a sprawl is just the beginning of the grappling interaction, with ‘Borz’ switching to an outside single or body lock from the back.

Moreover, Chimaev has more tools to end fights early, as evident in his decorated UFC resume, with 5 first-round finishes across 9 fights. By contrast, Adesanya is more likely to drag the fights to the judges’ panel, with his fight time average at 17:35. Staying on the feet with consistent evasion and bursts of explosive strikes for such a long period of time could gas out Izzy early.

But what do the statistics predict?

Adesanya and Chimaev by the numbers

Wrestling has never been Adesanya’s strongest suit. But as it turns out, even his striking seems to falter against prime Chimaev. At least that’s what the stats say, even though they are heavily diluted with Izzy’s recent subpar performances. But in his prime, Adesanya reigned, with terrifying head striking accuracy of 74%, 63% for body, and 68% for legs.

On the contrary, Chimaev believes in early finishes, one of the prime reasons his striking never got the room to shine. But even then, ‘Borz’ has strung together clinical precision striking, with an accuracy of 61% and over 4 strikes landed per minute. The only catch is Chimaev’s willingness to absorb some powerful hits just to get to wrestling range, which could backfire against Adesanya’s counter-striking style.

Refined under some of the world’s best wrestlers in Dagestan, Chimaev commands both top-tier technique and crushing top pressure, necessary to land takedowns on demand, and would clearly out-grapple Adesanya. Especially considering his 55% takedown accuracy, Chimaev seems to have the matter resolved. Until we take into account Izzy’s cold defiance, with a TD defense of nearly 80%.

Adesanya proved that he could outclass elite wrestlers like Gastelum and Robert Whittaker (Australian National Freestyle Champion in 2017). In fact, in both of his encounters with Whittaker, Adesanya showcased his ability to last against grapplers, edging the first win via KO while the second via Unanimous Decision.

However, Chimaev has also entered the striking dominion. His title bout against Dricus Du Plessis was one of the best examples of a lopsided bout in UFC history, where Chimaev humbled the striker with his own striking. Landing 529 strikes against DDP’s 45 was a humiliating experience for the latter. But Chimaev brought much more than just that to his arsenal.

Hitting 17 takedown attempts and securing 12 of them, places him as the third most takedowns landed in a UFC title fight. Moreover, Chimaev controlled DDP for 21 minutes and 40 seconds on the ground, making up 88% of the fight. This goes on to show Chimaev’s quiet dominance, which might not set off as many shenanigans, but delivers every single time.

Final Prediction: Adesanya v. Chimaev

Prime vs. Prime, the fight feels razor close. However, the bout tends to favor Chimaev more often than not, given his ability to control the wrestling range, chain wrestle to the ground, and maintain the position for prolonged periods. That is not to dispute Israel Adesanya’s dominance and commanding striking, which landed him among the world’s best in his prime.

One of the best ways Adesanya can tilt the bout in his favor is via an early knockout. The more the fight extends, the more dangerous Chimaev gets, with notorious, sneaky submissions to end the fight early. But we must remember that this is purely a fun hypothetical, which could slide either way. But if we had a pick, Chimaev surely gets it.

What are your thoughts on the fantasy matchup? Let us know in the comments.