UFC prospect Khamzat Chimaev faced adversity at UFC 273.
And that was a good thing.
After literally running through his first four UFC opponents, Chimaev went the distance with Gilbert Burns.
The former UFC title challenger made Chimaev battle and figure things out on the fly before coming up short via decision in one of the featured bouts.
In Chimaev’s first four UFC appearances, he faced the second round once. The other three fights ended in 17 seconds and just over three minutes each time.
And each time, Chimaev really did not need to deal with any real pressure.
If you look back over his career, it is likely that Chimeav was barely pushed much. Only a handful of his pre-UFC fights reached the second round.
The man is a finisher, and while that is what made fight fans happy, this showed his true skills.
Chimeav improvised, showed new skills and was a complete MMA fighter.
Burns was ranked No. 2 behind only Colby Covington and division champion Kamaru Usman coming in. Chimaev sat at No. 11.
While he is likely to take a huge jump, is he ready for Usman, the pound-for-pound best fighter in the UFC?
That is another story.
