Khamzat Chimaev‘s recent performances have only reinforced the fans’ belief that he’s an unstoppable force of nature. After manhandling former champion Robert Whittaker with high-octane wrestling, the odds tend to be in his favor whenever he steps inside the Octagon. However, the coach of another former champion seems to have studied Chimaev well enough and has come to understand what the undefeated star’s weakness is.

Israel Adesanya‘s striking coach Mike Angove, ahead of ‘Izzy’s Saudi Arabia Fight Night headliner, shared a pretty insightful opinion on Khamzat Chimaev’s fighting style. While acknowledging the danger that ‘Borz’ poses with his fast-paced wrestling, Angove claimed he has shown signs that it really affects him as the fight goes on and finds it hard to manage his ‘energy’ throughout the entire fight.

“I think Khamzat’s gas tank, because he goes a million miles an hour right from the start, has been shown to be questionable on a couple of occasions. And that probably comes back to fight IQ as well, you know, how to max and measure your energy,” Angove told ‘Submission Radio’.

The City Kickboxing coach also claimed that Chimaev heavily relies on his wrestling in every single fight. The amount of time he took to keep honing his grappling was time lost to learn the other facets of mixed martial arts. Mike Angove also pointed out that the two decision wins that Chimaev has have come against wrestling-heavy fighters, which is also another weakness of the Chechnya native. This could turn out to be detrimental in his future bouts despite having the strengths that he has.

“If your A-Game is so good that it just blasts through people, often you don’t develop those alternate strategies… He’s got smart people around him and he’s not another intelligent guy himself. So that’s something he’s obviously got to address,” Israel Adesanya’s coach added.

He further stated, “So you get him into deep waters, say, halfway through the second round, I think that’s an interesting proposition. But you’ve got to survive that first. The guy’s dangerous and he’s just brimming with fire, particularly early in the fight, and clearly, he’s insanely strong.” 

“Someone always looks invincible until you uncover the key weakness that brings out their vulnerabilities,” Angove added. It seems like Israel Adesanya’s camp has Khamzat Chimaev figured out, and these statements only affirm that speculation because the former 2-time middleweight champion recently spoke about fighting ‘Borz’. Here’s what he had to say!

Israel Adesanya is open to fighting Khamzat Chimaev

For the first time in 6 years and after 12 consecutive title fights, Israel Adesanya will be headlining a Fight Night card, but a lot is riding on this fight given that it will take place in Saudi Arabia. But just a month ago, he proposed to fight Khamzat Chimaev, who had earlier expressed interest in fighting ‘Izzy’ as well. Moreover, there’s an unexpected reason behind Adesanya’s wish to fight ‘Borz’, which took shape after he witnessed Robert Whittaker‘s crushing defeat at UFC 308.

“I was surprised the way Khamzat ran through Rob. That was crazy. That made me want to fight him,” Adesanya stated on his YouTube channel. While fans don’t always get what they want, they could get this fight between the former champion and the undefeated star. Chimaev had earlier welcomed the fight against ‘Izzy’, claiming that it would be a pretty good money fight for him.

For now, though, Israel Adesanya would be looking to breeze past an equally dangerous and #5 ranked Nassourdine Imavov on February 1. Having come off two losses on the trot, it will be interesting to see how ‘The Last Stylebender’ fares in Saudi Arabia. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.