The UFC is working towards a welterweight contest between the former title challenger Gilbert Burns and the rising prospect, Khamzat Chimaev. Fans are rallying hard for this one, but Chael Sonnen believes it isn’t the fight to make right now.
Burns is a former title challenger and he is coming off from a win against Stephen Thompson, given his current position in the rankings, this fight makes no sense to Sonne. Sonnen claims Chimaev is a wrecking ball, and Burns is more than capable to handle him, but just because he can do so, he shouldn’t risk his spot in the rankings against him. Burns has taken a lot of short notice fights in his career, and Sonnen asks him to pass on this one.
Talking to his fans via his YouTube channel, he said, “Neil should in my opinion get the fight. This is no, Burns, no. Burns and Chimaev, if you hear that anywhere, do not support it. Do not get behind that, do not retweet it, do not post it – kill it. You owe that to Burns. Somebody has to jump on the grenade that is Chimaev. How good is he? How good is he not? What’s real?? What’s not? Let him figure that out. But somebody still has to jump on the grenade of taking on a very good prospect.”
“Gilbert has done enough favors,” Chael Sonnen is against Gilbert Burns vs Khamzat Chimaev
He added, “Gilbert has done enough favors, it should not – at this point – be Gilbert. If Chimaev is as good as the people think he is and someone has to be the stepping stone along the way, it should not be Gilbert. Not right now. Gilbert’s done enough of that. Gilbert’s phone has rung enough times to do a job that nobody else had the balls to do.”
Burns himself claimed that this fight doesn’t make any sense, but just because he hasn’t fought for so long, he really can’t miss on an opportunity like this. Sonnen too thinks the same, he added, “I don’t think I’ll fight him while he’s ranked at No. 10, I think he’ll fight one more time and, winning against a top-5 or top-6, getting closer to the top 5, I’d fight him, no problem at all. Top-10, I wouldn’t fight. But that’s me fighting against myself. Top-10 doesn’t make sense, but I want to fight, so it’s complicated.”
Also read – “Do you wanna take Gilbert Burns down to the f***ing ground,” Michael Bisping warns Khamzat Chimaev
