The co-main event matchup between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev delivered on its promise after the Russian fighter submitted Robert Whittaker in an enthralling affair. The Russian fighter (14-0) won by submission in the first round and proved that he remains one of the scariest fighters in the UFC.

This has earned him the respect of many within the promotion, two of which are former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and retired MMA fighter Tim Welch. In a recent episode of TSS on the Suga Sean O’Malley YouTube channel, O’Malley and Welch talked about the dominance of the Chechen fighter inside the Octagon and how he has become a massive threat to other fighters in the UFC. One of which is Bo Nickal, the last ‘hope’ of Welch, who now claims that Nickal can easily get beaten by Chimaev.

After watching the sheet dominance of Khamzat Chimaev over the Australian, Tim Welch tweeted, “Bo Nickal might be the only hope vs. Khamzat. #UFC308.” However, this wasn’t something that sat right with fans, as they surely believed otherwise. So in the video, the former MMA fighter revealed that he believes Chimaev can surely beat Bo Nickal, as Welch might have mentioned Nickal becoming a threat after improving his skills in the future.

He said, “People got—I mean, people were fired up. I tweeted, “Bo Nickal might be our only hope.” They were fired up about that. I didn’t mean Bo Nickal right now; I feel like Bo Nickal right now might get beat up by Khamzat. But in a year and a half, if Bo keeps developing his striking, he’s one guy who could match his wrestling in the middleweight division.”

Sean O’Malley too chimed in as he made another major claim. According to ‘Suga’, Khamzat Chimaev is someone who can truly go against other great fighters such as DDP and Sean Strickland. But another major fighter that the Chechen might dethrone someday soon is Alex Pereira due to Chimaev’s sheer size. He said, “What about—what if, yeah, what if Khamzat goes up there, runs through DDP, runs through Strickland, whatever? I guess it’s hard to say because these fights take so long to play out. It’s like, Where’s Pereira by then? At 205, Kamzat is a big fella. Khamzat takes Pereira down.” Well, this is truly a statement that will surely polarize fans. But the ones who watched UFC 308 would believe that it isn’t far from the truth. Especially after the injuries Whittaker received in the match.

Robert Whittaker receives a ‘broken’ gift from Khamzat Chimaev

Many UFC fans were surprised by the speed of the surrender at UFC 308. However, the images that came out after the fight perfectly explain why. And it is the Chechen that caused Robert Whittaker (26-8) a fracture of the jaw and the displacement of three teeth—a real savagery, and that shows that Khamzat Chimaev’s grip strength is not normal.

Brian Sutterer, a sports doctor, explained on his social media that Robert Whittaker suffered a fractured jaw from Khamzat Chimaev. “The finish was so strong and powerful that it broke Whittaker’s lower jaw… Initially, it looked kind of like a choke, but actually Khamzat’s left arm is located on a part of Whittaker’s jaw called the mandible; that’s the lower part of your jaw that moves up and down… Your teeth on the lower portion of your mouth are fixed into that mandible. This wasn’t a jaw dislocation; there was some speculation about that, but based on a picture that was shared, this was just so powerful that Khamzat broke his jaw.”

Khamzat Chimaev himself was asked in the press conference after his fight about this fact and if he had been aware of the tremendous injury he had caused the Australian. “So I feel bad for that. I didn’t mean to break somebody’s chin, but it’s my work to make somebody pain and make me happy, my family. I wasn’t trying to break his jaw in any way.” Chimaev can surely be relieved by the fact that Robert Whittaker later explained what happened on Sunday and clarified that his jaw problem comes from his fight against Dricus Du Plessis in July 2023. What do you think? Is Chimaev the best middleweight in the UFC right now? Let us know in the comments.