Khamzat Chimaev sparks controversy after calling UFC champ Dricus du Plessis an "African gay" in viral X spaces conversation

Khamzat Chimaev appears to have his eyes set on Dricus du Plessis and the middleweight title, after he was heard making controversial digs at the champion during a recent X spaces conversation.

Chimaev is currently preparing for a No.1 contender bout against Robert Whittaker on Oct. 26 at UFC 308. The pair were originally set to meet in the octagon back in June, however, 'Borz' was forced out of the fight due to an undisclosed illness.

The 30-year-old earned his shot against 'The Reaper' last year when he faced short-notice replacement Kamaru Usman in a middleweight bout at UFC 294. They fought a fairly back-and-forth contest in which Chimaev proved he could weather a late storm from his opponent, winning the fight via majority decision.

Ahead of his bout against Whittaker, Khamzat Chimaev recently hosted a spaces conversation on X and was joined by his friend and former UFC fighter Darren Till. The pair chatted about all things MMA before eventually moving on to the middleweight title picture, where Chimaev opted to fire a number of shots towards the champ, Dricus du Plessis.

According to the Chechen-born fighter, his goal is to bring the 185-pound strap back to the "normal people". He said:

"We need to get the title back for the normal people man. This gay [du Plessis] who have the belt. Not normal. First time I've ever seen/heard like African gay."

Check out Chimaev's comments here, courtesy of Championship Rounds on X:

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Robert Whittaker explains what makes Khamzat Chimaev so dangerous

Robert Whittaker recently explained why he believes Khamzat Chimaev will be one of the most dangerous opponents he has faced so far in his career.

After losing to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290 last year, 'The Reaper' has bounced back and appears to be in the form of his career. He has since faced Paulo Costa and picked up a unanimous decision victory before then taking on short notice replacement Ikram Aliskerov, where he earned a performance bonus after finishing the Russian in the first round.

Despite his recent success, however, Whittaker isn't taking any chances when it comes to facing Chimaev. Speaking in a recent interview with Submission Radio, the 33-year-old outlined why 'Borz' will be one of his toughest career tests. He said:

''I definitely think he's [Khamzat Chimaev] the most dangerous because he's the one in front of untested like, he's the unknown right, but he's obviously very good, he took Usman down quite handily and controlled him on the ground so, and Usman's got very high level wrestling as well so it makes sense that he's very good at what he does but like I said I've wrestled with the best of them and it's a fight at the end of the night.''

Check out Robert Whittaker's comments here (3:55):