The UFC 273 fight week is finally around the corner with two title fights and a highly-anticipated welterweight showdown between Gilbert Burns and Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev has had a superb run in the UFC so far, winning all of his 4 bouts in the promotion with finishes in the first round.
But back in 2017, Chimaev was just 22 years old and he was already making a name for himself.
During a press event ahead of an Auckland card now retired UFC fighter Brian Stann was asked who really deserves to be in the UFC and is not currently with the promotion.
Stann went on to describe a young welterweight training out of Allstar gym in Sweden along with Alexander Gustafsson. Stann couldn’t remember the name but he had already heard of Chimaev’s reputation. Chimaev allegedly had a lot of success sparring with some of the biggest names that trained out of that gym.
Allstar gym has been the home of Alexander Gustafsson, Diego Gonzalez, Ilir Latifi, Reza Madadi, Felipe Lima and more.
Gustafsson was previously quoted saying:
“(Chimaev) works harder than I ever worked,” Gustafsson said. “He’s doing five sessions a day, at least. In my prime, when I fought Jon [Jones] and those guys back in the day, I did three sessions a day, and I did, like, 20 rounds every sparring [session]. My conditioning was crazy. But this guy, he outworks me. He doesn’t get tired.”