Khamzat Chimaev’s rise in the UFC has been nothing short of meteoric. Ever since he joined the UFC three years ago, the Chechen has been on the hype train, given his exciting fighting style and loud, bombastic verbal skills.

However, many feel that ‘Borz’s hype has given him an unfair leg up in the UFC, having fought only two real high-quality opponents, Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman, who gave him serious problems. And despite this short resume, he is in line for a middleweight title shot next, which many feel is undeserved. And one of these people is Brendan Allen, who spoke to the media about why Chimaev’s latest middleweight rankings are their fault.

Brendan Allen calls bulls**t on Khamzat Chimaev’s middleweight rankings

#10-ranked middleweight Brendan Allen is going to headline the upcoming UFC Vegas 82 against #13-ranked Paul Craig. On the media day of the card, he came out against Khamzat Chimaev who was ranked #8 middleweight despite having fought Usman, who was unranked at 185, and blamed the media for this.

Chimaev was supposed to fight middleweight champion Sean Strickland next but decided not to due to injuries. Instead, #1 middleweight contender Dricus Du Plessis will be ‘Tarzan’s first title defense. The Emirati citizen has fought no ranked opponent at middleweight yet, with Usman moving up to take the short-notice UFC 295 co-main event fight after Paulo Costa pulled out due to a bad case of staph infection. And Allen was very dismayed at this whole sequence of events.

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“He beat the No.1, 170 guy. Cool. Congratulations. I think everyone can agree a five-round fight, Kamaru wins and that was off the couch. Keep him at ‘70 and rank him No. 1, do that. This is a different thing. It’s bulls***t. This guy hasn’t beat an ‘85er. He hasn’t beat an ‘85er, especially a ranked ‘85er,” he said.

Allen is echoing many UFC fans’ and analysts’ opinions. A win against the #6-ranked middleweight Costa would have made a compelling case for a title shot. However, his defeating Usman, a welterweight, rubbed many the wrong way. However, the man they feel actually deserved a title shot is now set to be Strickland’s next opponent after Chimaev refused to fight in January.

Sean Strickland feels Chimaev does not deserve a title shot yet

For the first 2024 PPV card, Strickland will defend his title against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. The South African had passed up an opportunity to fight the then-champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 as he was recovering from a shoulder injury. Strickland took the fight instead and beat ‘Izzy’ in a shocking upset via a unanimous decision. And Strickland himself thinks that ‘Borz’ does not deserve a title shot.

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“He’ll be a tougher fight than Chimaev. Chimaev, he doesn’t f*cking deserve it. We all know that. The only reason why Chimaev gets that shot is because he sells a lot of tickets. That’s it,” the middleweight champion said on his YouTube channel. ‘Tarzan’ also felt that stylistically, Du Plessis would be a much tougher opponent due to his awkwardness than Chimaev. Do you think Chimaev deserves to fight for the middleweight title next? Let us know in the comments section below.

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