Michael Bisping believes UFC 273 was a good learning experience for Khamzat Chimaev: “You can’t always just go out there and dominate people”

Michael Bisping believes that UFC 273 was a good learning experience for Khamzat Chimaev.

This past Saturday, April 9th, saw Khamzat Chimaev (11-0 MMA) defeat Gilbert Burns (20-5 MMA) in a welterweight match-up that everyone is talking about. Some are saying it was the best fight of the year to date.

Michael Bisping, on his YouTube channel, had the following post-fight analogy (h/t MMAFighting):

“Absolutely fantastic. I don’t think anyone didn’t enjoy that fight and I think for Khamzat it was such a great fight for his development as a fighter, for his evolution as a fighter…”

“Khamzat’s gonna learn and grow from that because he approached that fight — I think Khamzat went into that one a little bit overconfident. I’m not saying he rested on his laurels, I’m not saying he was complacent in training camp… but I think he went in there expecting to steamroll Gilbert Burns. He thought he would just go right through him, and you can’t always think that. His history so far, he’s undefeated, and his first (UFC) fights, that’s what he did, he just mangled everybody. There was no f**king opposition, there was no stopping him whatsoever. So history has shown Khamzat that’s what he can do, so he thought that’s what was gonna happen again. That’s why he was sitting on the fence with Darren Till looking like he was waiting for a bus, all calm and collected. But Gilbert Burns came to fight…”

Continuing, Michael Bisping weighed in on what happened in the cage:

“The reason I think that’s good for Khamzat, he’s gonna learn you can’t always just go out there and dominate people the way you think you’re going to. He thought he was gonna walk through him and he went in there with no real game plan. Khamzat’s a much bigger guy, he’s a much longer guy, he’s got way longer arms, way longer reach. He could’ve made that a tougher fight for Gilbert if he’d have just employed a bit of strategy… But he didn’t do that. He just went straight forward, stuck in the pocket, took away his own reach advantage, and threw down, and in a fight like that, anyone can win. Gilbert Burns is extremely powerful so that’s not the smartest thing. So I think he’s gonna learn from that and I think he’s gonna come back better.”

Concluding, Bisping had this to say:

“Here’s what Khazmat proved: he can be the hammer and the nail. It’s all good going out there and destroying your opposition. Everybody loves that, everybody wants to see that, everybody wants to do that, but the question still remains, ‘Can he take a kicking and keep on ticking?’ Well now we know he can… Some people, when they start hitting adversity, they wilt and they look for a way out, but Khamzat Chimaev isn’t that guy. Khamzat definitely showed last night he can be a hammer and a nail, so he’s got all the ingredients.”

(via Michael Bisping & Colby Covington’s Instagram pages)

In speaking about the possibility of a Khamzat Chimaev vs Colby Covington (17-3 MMA) fight next, Michael Bisping had this to say:

“I’d probably lean towards Khamzat, which again sounds crazy, but I think the wrestling of Khamzat would nullify for sure Colby’s wrestling. So if you take the wrestling out of it, then we’re gonna go to striking. Khamzat has more power, Colby has more output, and that’s what it comes down to. I think Colby would have a gas tank advantage, conditioning goes to Colby. Experience as well, so there’s some stuff there. But wrestling and power goes to Khamzat. So we’ll see.”

Do you agree with Michael Bispings’ comments on Khamzat? Would you like to see ‘Chaos’ enter the cage with ‘Borz’?