Neil Magny is one of the rare fighters that has been asking to fight Khamzat Chimaev for the past few years and he got to taste what that would feel like back in November.
Khamzat Chimaev and Neil Magny’s paths crossed at the famous Renzo Gracie academy. The pair engaged in a grappling training session. Magny is BJJ brown belt and Chimaev is technically a BJJ purple belt with a lifetime of Wrestling under his belt.
Around the 4-minute mark of the now deleted video, you can see Magny and Chimaev grappling together.
The Chechen wolf Chimaev was able to tap Magny with a mounted triangle.
Magny talked about the experience of grappling with Chimaev Magny on The MMA Hour:
“We had the opportunity to train in New York and the guy is definitely the real deal. The best way I can explain it is like, I f***** around and found out. Khamzat is definitely the real deal.”
“I went in there thinking, ‘Oh, here’s this sweet little wolf that I can train with in jiu-jitsu,’ and then things got real, real fast. There’s more hats to the guy, more so realizing, damn, this guy is actually the real deal. He’s not a fighter or fight I can take lightly at all. If I’m being honest, had I got that fight early on, I might have set myself up for failure, looking past him a little bit.”
“Initially there wasn’t any tense moments at all, it was just an opportunity where it was like, ‘I’m here to train, you’re here to train,’ it was very respectful, going through the motions, not super competitive.”
“But that escalated very quickly. It went from that to a full on grappling match, getting slammed, all this kind of crazy stuff. So yeah, it definitely escalated quickly there.”
“There’s a video out there so I can’t even deny it, he definitely got the best of me that training session. Like I said, I f***** around and found out, and I definitely found out the hard way. ‘Oh yeah, sweet little wolf, here we go, we’re just playing around,’ and that wolf definitely bit, and I was like, ‘Oh crap, I was not expecting that.’
“At the end of the day, I could give make excuses for it. ‘Oh, I wasn’t giving it my all, maybe it was this, maybe the fact that he was bigger,’ I could give you a thousand reasons why that training session didn’t go in my favor, but at the end of the day, it didn’t, and that kind of gave me a dose of reality. Alright, you got some s*** to work on.
“I’ll never be one of those guys to sit there and be like, ‘Oh, my opponent got lucky, this happened,’ or blame [anything]. I’m just not going to make an excuse for it. He definitely got the best of me that day, but I know that’s not the end of it. I know I have a lot more in me than what I showed that day and it’s just up to me to go out there and prove it.”
Khamzat Chimaev absolutely destroyed Kevin Holland in the co-main event of UFC 279.
Chimaev was easily able to take Holland down and was all over him on the ground. He then proceeded to forcefully set up a D’Arce choke and submitted Holland after just 2:13 mins.
The demonstration was a great display of high level grappling from Chimaev who is a accomplished wrestler but just a purple belt in BJJ while Holland is a black belt under respected UFC vet Travis Lutter since 2020.
Khamzat’s BJJ instructor Alan Finfou stated that Khamzat is exposing fake BJJ black belt in the UFC:
“I’m making Khamzat expose all the fake black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that is in the MMA. Why? Because nowadays people just get belts like they go to McDonald’s. They don’t do the job. You know, he just got his purple belt. How many black belts in his career has he finished? So that shows. I’m using him to expose many guys. If you’re legit, doesn’t fit for you. But if you’re not, you better run.”
Khamzat Chimaev has defeated 4 BJJ black belts in the UFC: Gerald Meerschaert, Li Jingliang, Gilbert Burns and the aforementioned Kevin Holland.
Gilbert Burns was his toughest fight as he landed 119 punches on him, but the rest of the 5 fighters landed an accumulated 1 strike…
These fighters are all at a high level in MMA and BJJ. Meerschaert has 27 submissions, Jingliang has 4 submissions, Burns has 8 submissions and Holland has 6 submissions in their careers.
In the past Finfou told tatame, about selling belts in BJJ:
“Unfortunately, it’s very sad what’s happening with Jiu-Jitsu. Before it was an out of the world accomplishment to receive your black belt for a jiu-jitsu practitioner. I’m afraid that one day the time will come when people will feel ashamed to say they are the blackbelt of jiu-jitsu because of all that is happening today. I, in particular, do not see a come back or a solution for that. It’s very said. ” Finfou said about the existence of black belts in the world of the gentle art.
He added: “I believe that it is true, it’s not only here in Brazil but also in every other place. I take care of my work and show it daily in practice. I work every day as a teacher and an athlete as well as student because this is the only way people can actually see the difference between real black belts and lies. “
The post Neil Magny On Grappling Khamzat Chimaev & Getting Submited: ‘He is Definitely the Real Deal’ appeared first on Bjj Eastern Europe.