Khamzat Chimaev recently shared his thoughts on the potential boxing match between Nate Diaz and Jake Paul.
Chimaev was slated to face Diaz at UFC 279 but missed weight. Then he claimed he offered Diaz the entirety of his purse to accept catchweight. This is a claim Diaz’ team disputes.
Now Chimaev is out and talking how he believes that Diaz is now too old and weak to defeat Jake Paul.
Chimaev expressed his opinion on the matter during an interview with Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour. According to Chimaev, if Diaz and Paul were to box five years ago, it would have been a different story. However, now that Diaz is older, he believes that Paul would easily come out on top.
” Diaz, too weak, too old. Five years ago, if they fought against each other, no, but now, Diaz too old. You see his older brother, his last fight, I was watching that fight. I was saying, ‘why UFC put this guy in the cage?’ He’s like seventy years old. Too old that guy. The same his brother become old as well. They both become old.”
Khamzat Chimaev continued:
“They’ve been making money, making fights, a lot of them I watched before – I know a lot of their fights. Many fights. They both are originally from the UFC. They are funny guys. Now, it’s time old. People become old. Now, we younger guys come in and we take over.”
During the interview, Chimaev also criticized Diaz’s older brother, stating that he was too old to compete and should not have been in the cage. Chimaev emphasized that MMA pros become old and it’s time for younger UFC stars like himself to take over.
Chimaev’s comments come amidst speculation of a potential matchup between Diaz and Paul. Diaz, who recently became a free agent after defeating Tony Ferguson, has expressed interest in boxing Paul. Chimaev isn’t too far off from the truth – at least the betting world thinks so. When the rumors first surfaced, Paul opened as a betting favorite.
There’s also a size discrepancy to consider. While Diaz was a feature in the 170lbs division, he wasn’t exactly cutting weight to make 170lbs. Meanwhile Jake Paul weighed in between 190lbs and 200lbs for his various boxing showings.