Khamzat Chimaev’s coach is taking critics of the UFC Middleweight Champion to task.
Chimaev has been undefeated in his pro MMA career thus far. He turned in a grappling clinic with nearly 22 minutes of control time against Dricus du Plessis. Many anticipated that du Plessis would be able to create scrambles at least early on, but he didn’t have an answer.
Alan Finfou, Chimaev’s jiu-jitsu coach, reflected on criticisms that his fighter received after wins over du Plessis and Kamaru Usman. He told MMA Today that the critics aren’t being realistic (h/t MMAJunkie).
“With the fight with Kamaru Usman, we were preparing for one kind of fighter – it was Paulo Costa,” Finfou told MMA Today. “We were doing an entire camp for one type of fighter. A couple of days before the fight, they switch the opposite. We didn’t prepare for this, the same way Kamaru wasn’t training for (Chimaev) – he wasn’t in a camp for a fight. And then people start to say, ‘If it would be five rounds.’ Bro, this is delusional. We all know this is three rounds – preparation for three rounds.
“OK, we won that way, five rounds, pure dominance (vs. Du Plessis), so now nobody talks about fighting five rounds anymore, but people say that the fight was boring. If Khamzat asked, ‘Can I strike?’ and then we say ‘Yes, go,’ we’d just become sloppy, unprofessional and cocky at the wrong moment because the fight wasn’t finished. If he got knocked out, you know what everybody would say? ‘What an idiot! Why did he change? He was dominating the guy! The coaches let him do this.’”
Chimaev hasn’t competed since his middleweight title win back in Aug. 2025. Chimaev has been calling for a showdown with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira.
When do you expect Khamzat Chimaev to make his first UFC middleweight title defense? Sound off in the comment section below.