Israel Adesanya reveals the fight that made him "respect" Khamzat Chimaev: "You know he is game"

Israel Adesanya has been impressed by Khamzat Chimaev for a while now and the surging middleweight even got on his radar, to an extent, when Chimaev was still competing at welterweight. Speaking to Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, Adesanya covered several subjects ahead of his looming UFC Fight Night headliner against Nassourdine Imavov on Feb. 1.

One of the topics that was touched upon was when Adesanya commented on his YouTube channel about being impressed by Chimaev's dominant win over Robert Whittaker. The former two-time middleweight champion was so impressed by it that he even mentioned Chimaev as a future matchup for him.

When asked about how he envisions a future fight with Chimaev coming together while touching on several key upcoming bouts at the top end of the middleweight division, Adesanya said:

"I haven't envisioned it. I've just been focused on this; [Nassourdine] Imavov for the last twenty weeks or so. That's the only fight I've had in my mind. But yeah, seeing how, what's his name?, Khamzat did definitely made me go like ok, he's legit. But again, I've seen him fight over how many years and you know he's game."

"The fight with Gilbert [Burns] was the one that made me respect his dog in him. So I was like oh yeah, this guy's really; he's 'bout that life. So yeah, whenever it happens, it happens. But right now, I'm focused on Imavov."

Check out Israel Adesanya's thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev's fight with Gilbert Burns below (6:45):

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Israel Adesanya's newfound training rapport with a former two-time rival

Israel Adesanya has recently struck up a new training relationship that many in the mixed martial arts community have been thoroughly enjoying. Adesanya clashed in two massive middleweight title fights against Robert Whittaker but these days, the two men are honing skills together inside the gym.

The 35-year-old has been working with Whittaker at City Kickboxing in New Zealand with Adesanya describing the situation as one that came about organically. This was referenced in the interview embedded above as Adesanya spoke about how Whittaker's coach reached out to his coach to get things rolling early.

'The Last Stylebender' stated that he wasn't even aware Whittaker would be coming to the gym on the day that he did but Adesanya was hyped to have him there. Adesanya spoke highly of the tremendous respect he has for Whittaker after the two threw down in some of the biggest 185-pound title fights of all time.