Following the cancellation of events scheduled for March, the UFC will make its first trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 22 with a UFC Fight Night card headlined by Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev.
Bolts is currently the favorite to defeat Whittaker in a matchup between the pair, but UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre recently said he believes Chimaev will face a bigger test against the former middleweight champion. I explained the reason.
“If there's one guy who can stop Chimaev, it's Robert Whittaker,” St-Pierre said on Australian television. main event tv. “If you look at Chimaev, you can compare.” [him] In a way, it's like Yoel Romero. Romero was a very good wrestler, very explosive, a strong man, and Whittaker was his kryptonite. [for] Yoel Romero…style-wise, he's very capable of doing the same thing against Chimaev. ”
Whittaker handed Yoel Romero his first loss in the UFC at UFC 213, earning him the interim middleweight belt. In the rematch the following year, “The Grim Reaper” defeated Cuba's Romero in a hard-fought split decision.
Chimaev defeated former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, proving he is capable of wrestling with the best the UFC has to offer. Ahead of the fight against Whittaker, the 29-year-old appears to be working hard to perfect his hitting game.
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A win in Saudi Arabia could put Whittaker or Chimaev in line for the middleweight title, but recent rumors suggest that the UFC will be tying current titleholder Drikas du Plessis in the main event of 2019's UFC 305. Rumor has it that he is considering a match against two-time champion Israel Adesanya. Perth, Australia.
Whittaker had other ideas, telling Demetrius Johnson, “We're going to get this win.” “And this gave me the perfect direction and the perfect conditioning to win the title, which was always the goal.”
It's a difficult predicament for the Australian fighter. He has lost to two of the top three fighters in the division: Du Plessis and Adesanya (twice). But for many down-on-their-luck fighters, the proven path to success has been to take on the veritable boogeyman of their weight class – and Whittaker did just that in his bout with “Bolts” in Saudi Arabia. is practiced.
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