Khamzat Chimaev will find it difficult to outwrestle Colby Covington, claims Anthony Smith

Khamzat Chimaev recently claimed that he wants to fight Alex Pereira in January and Colby Covington in March. However, UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Smith believes Covington is a tougher matchup for Chimaev than 'Borz' would want to admit.

As far as the Pereira matchup is concerned, Smith believes that Chimaev would definitely have the advantage. During a recent episode of Michael Bisping's Believe You Me podcast, 'Lionheart' said:

"I totally get why he wants this Pereira fight. He probably watched that licking his chops. Like, 'These are two guys that I can smash.' With his style and the way that he approaches the game, those are two fairly favorable matchups in my opinion."

However, Smith is of the opinion that Covington could present problems for Chimaev. The former UFC lightweight title challenger continued:

"And I think the Colby Covington fight is a tougher fight than he probably wants to admit publicly. Say what you want about Colby Covington – about his attitude, the sh*t that he says, the lines that he crosses – [but] that motherf***er can fight and he's tough as they come..."

Catch Anthony Smith's comments below:

Chimaev currently finds himself in an awkward spot. He has mostly fought in the UFC welterweight division, but his recent weight miss led many to believe that a move up to middleweight is imminent for 'Borz'.

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Khamzat Chimaev claims Sean Shelby offered him fights against Alex Pereira and Colby Covington

Khamzat Chimaev wants to fight the top dogs in the welterweight and middleweight divisions.

The undefeated rising star claimed that he initially wanted to fight Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya. However, he added that he changed his mind after both former champions lost their belts this year.

With that in mind, Chimaev revealed that he asked for a matchup against newly-crowned champion Alex Pereira when he met up with matchmaker Sean Shelby. The Chechen-born Swede added that Shelby agreed, but only if he fights Colby Covington first:

"Sean Shelby, I spoke with him [about Pereira] and he said first, ‘Yeah, let’s go brother, we’ll do it’," Chimaev told ESPN MMA. "Then I don’t know what’s happening. He said, ‘OK brother, we’ll go Colby first.’ So maybe Colby, for me it doesn’t matter. Colby isn’t talking about the fight or about me, so you know how Colby is doing when he fights somebody, he doesn’t stop talking, so I don’t know. We will see."

Check out Khamzat Chimaev's comments below: