Jiu-Jitsu Coach Assesses Khamzat Chimaev’s Chances Against Top UFC Welterweights

After winning his first four Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts,
Khamzat
Chimaev has risen to No. 11 in the promotion’s latest
welterweight rankings and is just waiting for a call to confirm his
Octagon return.

“If it were up to him, I think he would fight every month. I
never worked with someone so competitive,” Alan Nascimento,
Chimaev’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, told Sherdog.com.

According to Nascimento, Chimaev will sleep in the academy whenever
he has a UFC fight announced.

“He just doesn’t want to lose time, so he moves into a room
inside the academy during the whole camp,” Nascimento said.
“And in training, if he loses one round or gets swept by someone,
he always asks me to [do it again], and that’s the most difficult
part of my job with him. He came from a family where his father and
brother were also wrestlers, so he always dealt with a lot of
pressure. My job is to make him understand that, in the evolving
process, in any martial art or combat sport you may have a bad day
to achieve your very best.”

Nascimento revealed that Chimaev’s trash talk with Colby
Covington was not just in hopes of selling a potential
fight.

“He really doesn’t like Colby,” Nascimento said. “Just
because he keeps talking bullshit in the media and when you meet
him personally backstage, he looks like a shy, 12-year-Old Boy.”

As far as the matchup of styles between Chimaev and Covington,
Nascimento says, “I truly believe Khamzat would kill
Colby.”

Nascimento believes Gilbert
Burns is one of the most difficult matchups among Top 5
contenders for Chimaev.

“‘Durinho’ is a complete fighter, good wrestler, amazing
jiu-jitsu and has great knockout power. In theory it would be the
worst match up to Khamzat, besides the champion,” he said.

Nascimento said that if Chimaev earns two or three more wins in the
division, he could be in line for a title shot. If Kamaru
Usman is still a champion at that point in time, the coach
believes the odds would be in his fighter’s favor.

“Let´s say Chimaev wins his next two or three bouts and gets the
title shot,” Nascimento said. “He will be 28 or 29 years old,
reaching his prime, while Usman will be 36, fighting five rounds
for five or six years, defending the belt for the eighth or ninth
time. If he is able to keep the same motivation and his best
physical condition for all that time, it’s gonna be a hard war, but
if not, Khamzat will beat him.”