The competitive yet respectful rivalry took a quick turn at the UFC 273 press conference as Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns engage in an epic back and forth
Leading up to UFC 273 Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns have been somewhat respectful of their opponent. The contenders even, sized each other up when they stumbled upon each other at the hotel lobby after a weight cutting session. However, things escalated at the UFC 273 press conference when Chimaev spoke about how he does not consider this match-up as a real threat.
The Chechen born Swedish mixed martial artist was the star attraction of the ceremonial press conference, and he was oozing with confidence and looked fired up, even punching the table at one point depicting that he’s rearing to go. Burns resorted to some unusual mockery of Chimaev’s accent and looked rather miffed.
“I’m gonna smash that guy and knock him out, one minute. I promise you. Little boy. Scared, scared boy. I feel it. I said to him yesterday, show his power, he couldn’t show that. He said I’ll show you Saturday and he turned around. I was there.”
“There’s power in my hands. I don’t care what I gotta do, I’m gonna jump in that cage and smash that guy. I don’t care. He will be down, I will smash his face. [If] we stand up, I will knock him out. I don’t care, brother. That guy is not f***ing from Brazil. I am more in Brazil than him, I am from Cantagalo. He is not Brazilian.”
The match-up got a whole lot more interesting now that both fighters have initiated pre-fight mental warfare. UFC President had previously confirmed that the winner of this fight will be guaranteed a title shot.
Logan Paul mean mugged by Khamzat Chimaev
Logan Paul also discussed the time he travelled to Sweden and met the hottest new prospect in MMA, Khamzat Chimaev. Paul was at the All Star Training Centre in Sweden, a place that forged and bred warriors like Alexander Gustafsson, Ilir Latifi and Chimaev now.
Ariel Helwani spoke about potential names of MMA opponents for a fight against Paul, and said that UFC star Khamzat Chimaev was amongst the first to raise his hand to fight Paul.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani he said, ‘ I went to Sweden to train for a couple of weeks, and I went to this gym [All Star]. There was this guy who kept staring at me, big beard, looked like a badass.. and I realized later that the guy was Khamzat Chimaev’
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