Dana White Praises Khamzat Chimaev: ‘If You Don’t Think He’s the Real Deal, You’re Out of Your Mind’

Khamzat Chimaev is one of the most heavily-hyped talents to compete in the UFC in recent memory, but until Saturday night, he hadn’t truly been tested in the Octagon.

Chimaev rolled through his first four UFC opponents, with his most notable victory coming in the form of a first-round submission against Jingliang Li this past October. While Li was on the fringe of the welterweight rankings, stepping up to face Gilbert Burns was another matter entirely. The Brazilian known as “Durinho” entered Saturday night as a former title challenger with wins over the likes of Stephen Thompson, Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia and Gunnar Nelson at 170 pounds.

Heading into UFC 273, Chimaev vs. Burns was arguably the most anticipated fight on the card – including the two title bouts – and it delivered beyond any reasonable expectation. Most importantly for Chimaev, he survived his first real adversity to capture a unanimous decision triumph against one of the top welterweights in the world.

At Saturday’s post-fight press conference, White had nothing but praise for the bout and Chimaev’s ability to deliver.

“It’s one of the best fights I’ve ever seen, it’s one of the coolest fights I’ve ever been to. The place was so loud, and people were going crazy,” White said. “That fight was eclipsing the co-main and main event all week, and I was talking to [UFC commentator Joe] Rogan, and [UFC matchmaker] Sean [Shelby], and [UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard], and everyone else, think about this: when is the last time you saw a guy come out of nowhere, nobody knows who he is, then fights a couple fights and then fights the No. 2-ranked guy in the world and wins?

“When you get into the Top 5 in the UFC, it’s no joke, man. Especially in that division. That division is straight killers. Tonight was a big test for him and he passed.”

As fight day approached, betting odds swelled in favor of Chimaev, creating perhaps an unreasonable expectation that he would walk through Burns without issue. While the Allstars Training Center representative did sit Burns down late in Round 1, the majority of the bout was a back-and-forth slugfest in which Chimaev had to shake off being clipped a few times.

White quickly dismissed the notion that Chimaev’s victory was anything resembling a disappointment given his step up in competition.

“He’s a human being and he just beat the No. 2 welterweight in the world with a couple of fights in the UFC,” White said. “If you don’t think he’s the real deal, you’re out of your mind. Yeah, he’s human.”

White also acknowledged the possibility that nerves might have gotten to Chimaev on the biggest stage of his career thus far. Even so, “Borz” didn’t let it affect him enough to lose the fight.

“[Training partner Darren] Till keeps telling me, ‘This guy never gets tired, he never runs out of energy,’ but you can’t train in a gym for what happened tonight. You can’t,” White said. “I’m sure this week, leading up to this week, he’s had a ton of pressure on him, a lot of anxiety, who knows how well he slept last night, all the things that go into the buzz and energy. And I’m sure there was a huge adrenaline dump after that first round. This is s--t you can’t train for, and you either make it through it or you don’t. He made it through with flying colors.”

Prior to UFC 273, White said that a matchup with Colby Covington could be next for Chimaev if the Sweden-based Chechen was victorious against Burns. In the aftermath of a “Fight of the Year” candidate, White still seemed to like the idea of Chimaev vs. Covington.

“I don’t know, but it’s big,” White said. You saw tonight. We’re in Jacksonville, Fla., with a Russian and Brazilian [as] the biggest fight of the night, and everybody’s going crazy, so I think it’s a big fight.”