"Nobody wanted it" - Khamzat Chimaev's potential title shot leads Chael Sonnen to speculate on ''blanket policy" middleweight contenders let slip

Khamzat Chimaev is now expected to face reigning UFC middleweight champion, Sean Strickland, sometime next year. The unbeaten Chechen-born fighter earned a potential title shot by defeating former welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman.

However, the manner in which he won and the circumstances by which the bout came to fruition has led to significant scrutiny. While Khamzat Chimaev outwrestled Usman early, he slowed down massively in Rounds 2 and 3, which looked poor given that Usman stepped in to face him on short notice.

Despite many believing Chimaev to be underserving of a title shot, he was always going to earn a title shot, at least according to Chael Sonnen. In a video on his YouTube channel, Sonnen asserted that UFC CEO Dana White had promised Khamzat Chimaev a middleweight title shot irrespective of who he beat at 185 pounds:

"They were so deftly scared of Chimaev, they didn't go for it, right. If Dana comes out and he says if Chimaev's next fight's at 185, whoever it is, it was a blanket policy, the opponent didn't matter. You could walk a mop out there, if you could get it licensed. If he gets a win at 185. There was not even a rumor for an opponent when Dana made this comment."

He blamed every other middleweight on the roster for not capitalizing on the opportunity, as few of them welcomed the challenge that Chimaev posed:

"Any middleweight could have got it. Du Plessis. Whittaker. Go right through the list. Gastelum would have been on there, but he announced that he was going to go down to 170. Bo Nickal. Any one of them could have got it, and why? Because nobody wanted it."

Check out the video below (4:55):

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Khamzat Chimaev's recent finishing rate

During his initial run in the UFC, Khamzat Chimaev's claim to fame was his 100% finishing rate. 'Borz' had stopped every single one of his opponents prior to 2021. However, his bout with Gilbert Burns saw that streak come to an end, as he won via unanimous decision.

While he managed to submit Kevin Holland in Round 1 in September last year, he again struggled to maintain his finishing consistency when he faced Kamaru Usman this past Saturday at UFC 294, defeating 'The Nigerian Nightmare' via majority decision.