5 adjustments Khamzat Chimaev needs to make to beat Kamaru Usman

This weekend saw Khamzat Chimaev pick up the biggest win of his UFC career to date. He defeated Gilbert Burns and now finds himself ranked at No.3 in the welterweight division.

A shot at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman now seems inevitable for Khamzat Chimaev, but could ‘Borz’ really dethrone ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’?

Based on what we saw in his fight with Burns, it seems unlikely that Chimaev could defeat Usman right now. However, he’s definitely got the potential if he makes a few changes.

With that in mind, here are five adjustments Khamzat Chimaev needs to make to defeat Kamaru Usman.

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#5. Khamzat Chimaev should tighten up his striking defense

Chimaev ate a number of heavy strikes from Gilbert Burns in their fight

Prior to his bout this weekend with Gilbert Burns, Khamzat Chimaev had not eaten a single significant strike during his four-fight UFC career. However, that all changed dramatically in his fight with ‘Durinho’.

Chimaev absorbed a total of 119 significant strikes, including 89 to the head. He also found himself stunned badly on more than one occasion in the second round in particular.

Sure, ‘Borz’ demonstrated an excellent chin, as he never looked like he was on the verge of being finished by the Brazilian, but it’s also worth noting that Burns isn’t exactly renowned for his knockout power. To be frank, it’s never good to eat so many big shots.

If he wants to defeat Kamaru Usman, then, it’s imperative that Chimaev tighten up his striking defense. After all, if Burns, who possesses a 71” reach, could touch him up standing, there’s no doubt that Usman, who has a reach of 76” and possesses a nasty jab, could do the same.

Put simply, it’d be a bad idea for Chimaev to brawl with ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ like he did with Burns. Instead, ‘Borz’ would be far better off working on his head movement, footwork and angles, and looking to catch the champion with his brutal power punches in a more nuanced way.

Could Chimaev knock Usman out? He’s definitely got the heavy hands to do so, but if he comes at him like he did with Burns, he risks being knocked out himself, and that just isn’t a risk worth taking.

#4. Khamzat Chimaev should look for control on the ground

Khamzat Chimaev should look to control Kamaru Usman on the ground if they fight

Thus far into his UFC career, Kamaru Usman has never been taken down. Considering he’s been with the promotion since 2015 and has entered the octagon on 15 occasions, that’s a highly impressive statistic.

If Khamzat Chimaev faces him, though, ‘Borz’ will probably be hopeful of becoming the first man to put Usman on his back. Based on what we’ve seen of his phenomenal wrestling skills thus far, it’s definitely possible that the Chechen-born Swede could pull it off.

However, if he wants to beat Usman, then merely taking him down isn’t likely to be enough. Chimaev will probably need to not only take the champion down, he’ll need to keep him there, too.

Across Chimaev’s five fights in the octagon, he’s completed a total of six takedowns. While that doesn’t sound overly impressive, the fact that he finished John Phillips, Rhys McKee and Li Jingliang on the ground so quickly means that he didn’t need to take them down on multiple occasions.

However, in his fight with Gilbert Burns, it was notable that while ‘Borz’ was able to take the Brazilian down, he wasn’t able to keep him there for that long. In fact, he controlled Burns for a total of just over two minutes, which is not a lengthy period in a 15-minute fight.

Chimaev’s wins over McKee and Jingliang showed that he can control lesser fighters on the ground. But if he’s going to beat Usman, then he’ll need to find a way to advance to a dominant position quickly or work on holding his opponents firmly down from the guard, perhaps giving up some ground-and-pound possibilities to do so.

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#3. Khamzat Chimaev should expect a longer fight

Kamaru Usman has been through five round wars on multiple occasions in the UFC

We’ve seen on numerous occasions over the years that fighters who blow their earlier overmatched opponents away tend to struggle once they’re tested in a lengthier fight.

David Terrell, for instance, was seen as a blue-chip prospect after he knocked out Matt Lindland in seconds in 2004, but when he couldn’t put Evan Tanner away in the early going in his next bout, he ended up gassing out and succumbing to a TKO defeat.

In his bout with Gilbert Burns, it was immediately clear that Khamzat Chimaev expected to be able to finish the Brazilian as easily and as quickly as he’d done to the likes of Rhys McKee and Li Jingliang. When that wasn’t the case, he did seem to tire out substantially.

Sure, ‘Borz’ recovered from a bad second round in impressive fashion and won the third round to claim a victory by decision, but many observers felt that the fight could’ve gone the other way. The Chechnyan definitely looked more exhausted when the bout ended.

So if he wants to defeat Kamaru Usman, not only will Chimaev need to work on his cardio, but he’ll also need to expect a longer fight in the first place.

Usman is a proven, dominant champion who is experienced in five-round bouts. So even if Chimaev hits him with everything he’s got, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to put ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ away early.

With that considered, ‘Borz’ should look to conserve more energy in the early going and look to turn up the heat in the latter rounds, just as Usman would do.

#2. Khamzat Chimaev should hunt for submissions on the ground

Could Khamzat Chimaev choke out Kamaru Usman as he did to Li Jingliang

It’s probably fair to state that in his 15-fight career with the UFC, welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman has shown basically zero weaknesses. He’s been able to take every opponent he’s faced down if he’s wanted to, has never been planted on his back and has only been knocked down on a couple of occasions.

However, in his pre-UFC career, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ did suffer a defeat, falling to the unheralded Jose Caceres via rear naked choke back in 2013.

Sure, Usman has obviously come on in leaps and bounds since that fight. Nevertheless, if he were taken down, then the chances of him being susceptible to a submission attack might still be relatively high.

Khamzat Chimaev has shown himself to be a formidable submission artist on the ground. He’s tapped out two of his opponents in the UFC and two of his opponents prior to his career with the promotion.

However, based on what we’ve seen of him, ‘Borz’ doesn’t always hunt for submissions right away on the ground, preferring to hammer his opponents with ground-and-pound instead. In that sense, he’s more Khabib Nurmagomedov than Islam Makhachev.

In a fight with Kamaru Usman, though, that may not be the best route to victory. If he can get ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ to the ground, becoming the first man to do so in the process, then hunting immediately for a submission, particularly a choke, might be the best way to go.

Usman isn’t likely to give up his neck as easily as he did to Caceres nearly a decade ago, but if Chimaev could claim a dominant position, he’s much more likely to finish the champ via tapout than he would be via strikes.

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#1. Khamzat Chimaev should not get too wild in an attempt to finish

Khamzat Chimaev got a little too wild in his attempts to finish Gilbert Burns

Prior to his fight with Gilbert Burns this weekend, Khamzat Chimaev had never gone the distance in any of his 10 professional bouts, including his first four in the UFC. A consummate finisher, ‘Borz’ had used both strikes and submissions to take out his foes.

There’s certainly no shame in the fact that he failed to finish Burns, who had only been stopped twice prior to their clash in 24 bouts. However, could Chimaev have put the Brazilian away with a couple of adjustments?

When ‘Borz’ knocked Burns down in the latter stages of the first round, he pounced on him in an attempt to finish, but it was immediately clear that his wild, slashing punches from the top probably weren’t going to do the job.

It felt like Chimaev expected to be able to overwhelm ‘Durinho’ with sheer aggression. As we saw, that approach just didn’t work.

Therefore, in a possible fight with Kamaru Usman, a big key to victory for the Chechnyan might be to ensure that if he gets ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ hurt, he doesn’t get too wild in an attempt to finish him off.

Instead, a better approach would be to aim for heavy, accurate punches to the head, ala Conor McGregor against Donald Cerrone, than to simply look to use his aggression to seal the deal.