Since his arrival in the UFC in July 2020, Khamzat Chimaev seemed destined to become a champion. The undefeated Chechen lived up to those expectations winning the middleweight championship at UFC 319 by dominating then-titleholder Dricus Du Plessis.
Chimaev has stated in the past that he doesn’t care about belts, but admits becoming champion has changed his life.
“I don’t ever think about it so much,” he said. “It means a lot, of course. I want to be champion. If you are working somewhere you want to be the best at that job. It means a lot, but not that crazy emotional about that. For me, most important was that it makes my life better. I feel like I did it.”
“A lot of things have changed. More and more fans,” continued Chimaev. “It’s hard to have privacy but more money, more everything… They make my money higher than I usually get, and I’ve made more money outside of the UFC.”
Motivated by paydays and the perks that wealth brings, Chimaev wants big matchups that’ll earn him the most income. Looking at the contenders in the division, they don’t excite the champion.
“In my weight class… There is [Nassourdine] Imavov. There is [Sean] Strickland. Who else is in the Top 5? [Anthony] Hernandez. Whoever. I don’t care,” Chimaev said.
“These fights not make me excited, but I need to do my job. I need to make money. If there is big name that is like to make more money then I will be excited because if you get like $3 million for the fight then you have a good name and you make $5, $6 million. Of course you’re going to be excited for that. For one guy you do the double job. I need that kind of fights.”
Chimaev plans to move up to the light heavyweight division following his next fight to chase more paychecks with a lot of zeros.
“I want for sure one more fight and I’m going to go one more weight class up,” Chimaev revealed. “One more fight and I’ll move up to the next weight class.”
