Fans react to Khamzat Chimaev seemingly confirming move up to middleweight

MMA fans have reacted to a post from welterweight star Khamzat Chimaev that appears to confirm his intentions to move up to the middleweight division indefinitely.

Chimaev was recently at the heart of controversy earlier this month during UFC 279's chaotic fight week. 'Borz' was involved in a backstage altercation with Kevin Holland and Nate Diaz. He then missed weight by a shocking 7.5 lbs during the weigh-ins. The card was then reshuffled and the Chechen-born Swede was made to fight 'Trailblazer' in a catchweight bout, instead of facing Diaz in the main event.

Khamzat Chimarev dominated Holland for a little over two minutes before submitting him in round one. 'Borz' recently took to Twitter and it looks as though he's ready to tackle the middleweight division as seen in the post below.

Many from the MMA community have reacted to the post from Chimaev, with one fan suggesting he should stay at a lower weight class to avoid fighting Robert Whittaker:

Another fan hopes 'Borz' will stay at 170 lbs as he's ranked No.3 in the division and close to a title shot:

Twitter user @DamoTee14 joked that middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is going to train even harder in the gym if Chimaev enters the division:

Michael Bisping names middleweight fighter Khamzat Chimaev must defeat for title shot

UFC Hall of Famer and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping has named Paulo Costa as the opponent for Khamzat Chimaev to defeat to put himself in middleweight title contention.

During UFC 279 fight week, Costa and Chimaev appeared to get into an altercation at the UFC Performance Institute. 'Borrachinha' maintained the story of how he was training with Jake Shields before 'Borz' and his team entered the training area and started talking smack.

Since the incident, the Brazilian has been seen regularly trolling the Chechen-born Swede on social media, hoping for a fight to be booked between the pair.

In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Bisping discussed Chimaev's inevitable move to middleweight and the prospect of him fighting fan favorite Paulo Costa:

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Will began his tenure at Sportskeeda as an MMA writer over 2 years ago and has penned over 1800 pieces so far, including 35+ exclusives, which have garnered close to 5 million views.

Will graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Media and Communications from Bournemouth University, where he was also a valued member of their communications team. His degree heavily focused on social media and writing, which eventually led him toward sports writing.

He turned into an MMA fan after witnessing Conor McGregor’s 13-second TKO win over Jose Aldo at UFC 194 in 2015. The Irishman sits at the top of his list of top-five MMA fighters of all time, which also includes world champions like Demetrious Johnson, Michael Bisping, Max Holloway, and Georges St-Pierre.

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Know More

"The reaper would eat you up son" - Fans react to Khamzat Chimaev seemingly confirming move to middleweight

Michael Bisping names middleweight fighter Khamzat Chimaev must defeat for title shot