Khamzat Chimaev vs Li Jingliang: No knockout in the first round

On October 30, the UFC 267 tournament will be held on Fight Island in the UAE. Here is our prediction for the Khamzat Chimaev vs Li Jingliang fight.

Last summer Chimaev made millions of fans fall in love with him. He was feisty, aggressive, boisterous, and scandalous, and he destroyed rivals very quickly. However, later, these opponents were of a low level, and the top fighters ignored the upstart. The hype gradually died out, and Khamzat was laid low by illness and injury, then forgotten about.

A year has passed, and Khamzat Chimaev returns. In his three fights in the UFC, he has missed only two punches. He doesn’t have a single defeat in his career, and he’s never seen what’s beyond the second gong in the third round? And it looks like he’s unclogging his trestle again.

I’m going to go in there and eat this guy up, and then we’ll see what happens after that. I’m open to anything. I want to fight. I’m going after everybody. I don’t know when our fight will end, first round or second round, but I’m going for the finish. I have nine fights and nine finishes. I don’t want to stop there. I’m going to go out there and kill this guy. I don’t want to hold him back and win rounds. I’m here to kill. I’m a warrior, and I like this kind of fighting.

Khamzat Chimaev

The Chinese fighter is ranked number eleven in the UFC in his division, and on paper, he is the most dangerous opponent Khamzat has had to fight. He’s been in the league a long time, since 2014, and has a professional record of 18-6. He has eight wins by knockout, three by submission, and has never lost by knockout in his life.

His last fight was in January this year, and he won by straight knockout against Santiago Ponzinibbio in the first round.

Before giving a prediction and charging a bet, there are two things we should pay attention to. The first is that Jingliang is inferior to Chimaev in the groundwork. And second, we do not know what’s wrong with Khamzat’s health, how much he has recovered from all his misfortunes, both mentally and physically.

Styles are decisive, so there could be several outcomes of the fight. If Chimaev misses a good fight, he will fight from the first second, as he usually does, and either gets knocked out quickly or gets knocked out himself. But we know how badly long downtime affects fighters, especially downtime without training. So Khamzat will probably be more cautious this time and will see how things go first. In the end, he will take the fight to the ground floor and settle there. In any case, the encounter will not end before the second round; the odds for such an outcome are 1.86. The odds for Total Over 1.5 are 1.83.