Joaquin Buckley Takes Aim at Khamzat Chimaev, Says ‘Borz’ is Afraid to Stand and Trade
Joaquin Buckley has once more taken a dig at UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev. Buckley thinks Chimaev does not like to keep the bout standing, as he is scared of getting knocked out. Hence, ‘Borz’ uses a wrestling-heavy approach whenever he enters the octagon.
Earlier this month, Buckley had also issued a $50,000 challenge to Chimaev to keep his next bout standing for one round, solely striking, and not wrestling.
Check out Joaquin Buckley’s challenge to Khamzat Chimaev below:
In an interview with Submission Radio, Buckley said that Khabib Nurmagomedov had a similar fight style but would ground and pound his opponents from top position. But Chimaev holds his foes down and ‘hugs them to death.’ ‘New Mansa’ said:
“Khabib used to use his wrestling all the time and grapple guys to the ground, but he never hugged them to death. He used to ground-and-pound the mess out of you. I can respect that type of use of your grappling, but if you’re only willing to hold somebody down because you do not want to fight on the feet, because you’re dead scared that they might knock you out, I’m not a fan of that.
Yeah, I offered Khamzat $50K in order to stay on his feet for at least one round and not use his wrestling, because if he did do that, his ass would get knocked out and get exposed to the world that he ain’t really the boogeyman.”
Check out Joaquin Buckley’s comments about Khamzat Chimaev below:
In Chimaev’s last outing, when he dethroned Dricus du Plessis, the Chechen-born Emirati had a control time of more than 21 minutes and took ‘Stillknocks’ down 12 times. Notably, Chimaev went for the first takedown within 10 seconds of Round 1.
Although opinions on Chimaev’s fighting style are divided within the MMA community, ‘Borz’ has not held back when taking on Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. He has also won two UFC bouts by knockout.
However, the Chechen-born Emirati’s most impressive victories so far have been his first-round submissions of Robert Whittaker and Kevin Holland.
Khamzat Chimaev asks Nassourdine Imavov to work on his wrestling
Khamzat Chimaev and Nassourdine Imavov have mixed feelings about fighting each other due to personal ties and the relationship between their countries.
However, Chimaev, who is currently injured, has called out Imavov and asked ‘The Sniper’ to work on his wrestling before they potentially lock horns in 2026. He wrote on X:
“See you after Ramadan @imavov1 🤫 You have time work on your wrestling Bratishka 😁”
Check out Khamzat Chimaev’s comments below:
Imavov is not keen on battling Chimaev. Instead, his only focus is the UFC middleweight championship. ‘Borz’ has stated that if Imavov can wait for a title shot till he advances to light heavyweight, he has no objections to it either. But they will fight if the UFC wants them to.
