KEY POINTS

  • Khamzat Chimaev faced his toughest opponent in Gilbert Burns at UFC 273
  • Michael Bisping shares his detailed reaction to Chimaev's performance
  • "Borz" confesses that he made a huge mistake during the fight

A former UFC champion has criticized Khamzat Chimaev's performance against Gilbert Burns at UFC 273 over the weekend.

Burns vs. Chimaev became one of the hottest subjects of discussion for obvious reasons.

It can be recalled that both welterweight contenders engaged in a three-round slugfest that ended with Chimaev being rewarded with a unanimous decision win.

Despite the win, some believe that “Borz” was humbled by Burns and many have weighed in on his performance. Among them was former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping.

According to “The Count,” Chimaev may have been overconfident heading into the fight, having completed one of the most impressive UFC runs in history.

Little did he know, Burns was no easy opponent.

“I think Khamzat went into that one a little bit overconfident,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “I’m not saying he rested on his laurels, I’m not saying he was complacent in training camp... but I think he went in there expecting to steamroll Gilbert Burns. He thought he would just go right through him, and you can’t always think that.”

“That’s why he was sitting on the fence with Darren Till looking like he was waiting for a bus, all calm and collected,” he continued. “But Gilbert Burns came to fight .”

Khamzat Chimaev
Khamzat Chimaev getting his hand raised after beating Gerald Meerschaert in their UFC Fight Night bout in 2020. Getty Images/Zuffa/LLC

Bisping also reckoned that Chimaev was so oozing with confidence that he went in there without any concrete game plan.

Based on Bisping’s assessment, Chimaev could’ve capitalized on his advantages over the Brazilian, but he just stood there and relied on his knockout power.

“The reason I think that’s good for Khamzat, he’s gonna learn you can’t always just go out there and dominate people the way you think you’re going to,” the Brit stressed. “He thought he was gonna walk through him and he went in there with no real game plan.”

“Khamzat’s a much bigger guy, he’s a much longer guy, he’s got way longer arms, way longer reach,” he added. “He could’ve made that a tougher fight for Gilbert if he’d have just employed a bit of strategy. But he didn’t do that.”

Speaking to reporters in his UFC 273 post-fight press conference, Chimaev himself admitted that he was well aware of his mistake.

“I was too excited to knock him [Burns] out,” he explained. “I was saying to everybody all week I was going to knock him out in one round. I tried to knock him out. That was wrong for me, from the beginning.”

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