Top UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan recently revealed what it felt like to grapple with Khamzat Chimaev. The two men would almost certainly never cross paths in MMA because they inhabit completely different weight classes, as Chimaev alternates between welterweight and middleweight and Tsarukyan has spent almost his entire career at lightweight. Chimaev appears to be committed to the middleweight division for the foreseeable future too, as he just dominated Dricus Du Plessis to win the title at UFC 319. Even if he dies return to welterweight in the future, he can’t go any further down than that and Tsarukyan is very unlikely to ever meet him there.
They did get the chance to compete against each other in one fashion though, as they were opposing coaches on a reality show just last year. They took part in a grappling match during the show and Chimaev dominated the exchanges, and not just because of his size advantage. Obviously his size plays a factor, but he’s had similarly dominant performances against some of the best welterweights and middleweights in the world. Wrestling and grappling on the ground is Chimaev’s specialty and he’s been able to control several elite grapplers, often taking down his opponents in the first few seconds of the match.
When Tsarukyan was asked about his experience grappling with Chimaev in a recent interview, he was very complimentary about him:
“We had a (grappling) match with him. It’ll be part of the (Hype Reality) project. And in addition to the wrestling, I felt his power, too. He is very strong, powerful and he weighs I think about 100 kilograms… He can take you down well, control; breathes well. Such as wrestling work with control and at the same (time), uses grappling very well, especially in chokes. He has two very solid techniques. He chokes from the position, the position that it’s better not to be in.”
The interview clip where Arman Tsarukyan explains what it was like to grapple with Khamzat Chimaev was shared by MMA journalist Islam Babadzhanov on his official Twitter account:
