Khamzat Chimaev reacts to Israel Adesanya defeating Paulo Costa at UFC 253

UFC welterweight and middleweight contender Khamzat Chimaev reacted to Israel Adesanya finishing Paulo Costa with strikes at UFC 253.

Adesanya finished his rival Costa in the second round with strikes to once again defend the UFC middleweight title. Following the fight, a number of UFC fighters took to social media to comment on the fight. One of those fighters was Chimaev, the emerging UFC superstar. The Swede took to his Twitter following Adesanya’s win over Costa to suggest that he should be the next one in line to fight Adesanya for the 185lbs title.

Give me the skinny guy

Unfortunately, Chimaev later deleted the Tweet, but we were able to screen capture it before it was deleted from the walls of Twitter. As you can see from the Tweet, it’s clear that Chimaev is interested in a fight against Adesanya next. The Swede has quickly risen up the UFC rankings in just three months since making his debut on Fight Island in July to become one of the biggest stars in the world of mixed martial arts. He isn’t ranked in the top-15 yet but fans and media all know just how good this guy is.

Of course, based on the rankings, that’s not a fight that makes sense considering Chimaev isn’t a ranked fighter and Adesanya is the champion at 185lbs. But if this is a fight that the fans want to see then the UFC could find a way to justify it even despite the gap in the rankings. As it stands now, though, Adesanya seems likely to fight Jared Cannonier in his next title defense as long as Cannonier gets by Robert Whittaker at UFC 254. But waiting in the wings for that title shot sometime soon will be Chimaev.

Would you like to see Khamzat Chimaev fight Israel Adesanya?