5 adjustments Khamzat Chimaev needs to make to beat Kamaru Usman

#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.

---

#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.