Joe Rogan doesn’t believe UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev competing in a third division would be too much.
Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC), who started out his career at welterweight, is now pondering a light heavyweight move. With his dominant grappling, Rogan isn’t ruling out Chimaev’s potential at 205 pounds.
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Chimaev claimed the middleweight title by taking down Dricus Du Plessis 12 times and controlling him for more than 21 minutes in a lopsided unanimous decision win at UFC 319 in August.
“I think he can do it,” Rogan said of Chimaev on a recent episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “I think he can do it if he takes time and puts weight on. Because he’s tall and also the thing is these gaps in wrestling, these gaps in grappling, when a guy’s a really good grappler, and then you’re taking on Dricus, who’s really a striker. He’s a good grappler, a good jiu-jitsu guy, but there’s levels. The kind of guy like Khamzat, like man, you’ve got to be a f*cking Olympic-caliber wrestler to scrap with that guy.”
Chimaev continues to express interest in a fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. He teased just one title defense at middleweight against any top contender then a move up.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joe Rogan supports Khamzat Chimaev’s light heavyweight ambition
