Kamaru Usman Moves Up To UFC Middleweight To Face Khamzat Chimaev

Nigerian-born American UFC fighter, Kamaru Usman will take on Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 according to the president of the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) body, Dana White.

Kamaru Usman who is a former champion of the welterweight division has to take on Chimaev since Brazilian UFC fighter, Paulo Costa is out with an injury.

The Brazilian fighter had to undergo elbow surgery weeks before the proposed fight which forced Usman to come into the picture.

This development means that the Nigerian-born fighter will now have to move from the Welterweight division to the middleweight.

Hence, the bout between Kamaru Usman and 29-year-old Chimaev, a Swedish mixed martial artist, on Saturday, October 21, has become a must-watch for MMA enthusiasts.

Usman will be making his middleweight debut after Leon Edwards defeated him in back-to-back welterweight title fights, after holding the division title for three years, from 2019 to 2022.

“You know what we’ve been dealing with this week. We just got the big fight done yesterday, the highly anticipated rematch in Abu Dhabi, Makhachev vs Volkanovski,” White said on social media.

“Now you’ve been waiting for the co-main event. Costa’s hurt, we got it done. The No. 4 welterweight in the world, Khamzat Chimaev, is moving up to middleweight and he will face the No.1 welterweight in the world, Kamaru Usman.”

Usman had always been hesitant to move up to middleweight because he didn’t want to fight fellow countryman and the former two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

He argued that it would be better to have two Nigerian-born UFC champions than just one, but given that neither of them is currently a champion, he had to change his stance.