Khamzat Chimaev is set to return to action at UFC 308 where his fight with former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has been rescheduled for the co-main event.
Despite the fact that he debuted in the UFC four years ago, it still feels like there are so many unanswered questions surrounding the undefeated contender.
Chimaev has an element of mystery and myth that still surrounds him, largely thanks to the stories you will hear from the fighters that have trained alongside him.
One of those athletes is the #5-ranked middleweight Caio Borralho who got some work in with Chimaev two years ago.
Caio Borralho Reflects On Experience Training With Khamzat Chimaev In Sweden
Borralho had two main takeaways from the time that he spent training with Chimaev in the past, as he detailed in a recent interview with Submission Radio.
His first major talking point was about the level of wrestling that his fellow middleweight contender brings to the table and how Whittaker will need to be working with the right training partners in order to prepare himself for this.
“I already training with him, spent some time in Sweden with him for his training camp against Nate Diaz, the fight that never happened. I was there training with him every day, was my main sparring partner for this camp and I think it’s a very tough fight for Whittaker ‘cuz Khamzat has very great wrestling and there’s one thing about Khamzat that people don’t realize too much. They don’t know what kind of level to expect from him. Like they know by seeing but when feel it, think it’s a little bit different. This kind of level of wrestling, of grappling, I think the best wrestler in the division is Khamzat and we saw how he dominated Kamaru Usman, that’s a great, great wrestler.”
Along with his wrestling pedigree, the other major characteristic of Chimaev’s approach to MMA has been his intense work ethic.
Borralho gave some insight into this by detailing one particular session where “Borz” continued to work after completing the sparring session for the day.
“He trains a lot, like I didn’t see any other guy in my life that trains as much as he trains. Maybe that’s why sometimes he like kills his body and doesn’t make it to the fight but definitely a guy that over train everyone in the room. There was a time that we did like five rounds sparring and after sparring, he did like three or four rounds of pads and then after that, he did like a 30-minute run and I was like, ‘What the f*** is this guy doing?'”
