Gilbert Burns believes that Khamzat Chimaev's biggest threat in his UFC middleweight title reign is Reinier de Ridder.
As we know, Khamzat Chimaev is the reigning UFC middleweight champion. He dominated and defeated Dricus du Plessis to claim the belt and now, the focus has shifted to who his first challenger will be. There are plenty of options on the table, but one of the most obvious is Reinier de Ridder.
RDR has been on fire since he first entered the promotion and now, it feels like he may be just one win away from a title shot. While he may now be facing Brendan Allen instead of Anthony Hernandez in his next bout, de Ridder could easily earn a crack at Khamzat Chimaev if he puts on yet another impressive performance.
In the eyes of Gilbert Burns, who once took Khamzat Chimaev to the limit at welterweight, RDR could cause the champ some problems.
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Gilbert Burns’ view on Khamzat Chimaev vs Reinier de Ridder
“I actually had a jiu-jitsu big camp in Brazil, I talked to Chimaev’s coach, his jiu-jitsu coach, who I fought before. He ask me who do you think is the hardest fight? I think it’s RDR. And then he said, me too, I think it’s RDR. I think he can win. I think his jiu-jitsu is high level. Trained with him a couple of times. Very long, very big. Not sure how he makes middleweight, he’s huge.”
Regardless of how you examine it, Khamzat has a lot of possible contenders to deal with.