Former UFC champion Michael Bisping is helping out the future opponents of Khamzat Chimaev.

UFC 319 saw Chimaev finally cash in on his long-awaited title opportunity, delivering a dominant five-round performance against Dricus Du Plessis to capture the undisputed middleweight world championship.

Chimaev logged more than 21 minutes of control time and a dozen takedowns against the South African sensation. Borz’ also managed to get ‘DDP’ into the dreadful crucifix position, leaving Du Plessis as helpless as a turtle lying on its back.

With contenders already lining up to try and dethrone the undefeated Chechen monster, ‘The Count’ offered a tutorial on how to escape the crucifix.

Perhaps that bit of advice will come in handy for Chimaev’s first title challenger.

Who’s first up for Middleweight King Khamzat Chimaev in the UFC?

As to who that’ll be, there are plenty of viable contenders sitting near the top of the middleweight division, all of them with a reasonable argument for why they should be next in line. In the next couple of months, we should see a clear contender emerge as both UFC Paris and UFC Vancouver will feature high-stakes scraps at 185 pounds with serious title implications to boot.

The first will see top-ranked contender Nassourdine Imavov squaring off with Fighting Nerds founder Caio Borralho in ‘The City of Light’ on September 6.

Roughly a month later, former two-division ONE world champion Reinier de Ridder will look to continue his hot streak when he heads to The Great White North for a showdown with surging standout Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez.

Chances are, one of those four men will be the first to fight Chimaev, and it’ll likely come down to not just who wins, but who delivers the most impressive performance in their respective scrap.

Craig Pekios

Craig Pekios is a freelance writer born and raised in Bettendorf, IA. Joining LowKick MMA in May 2022, Craig has more than 4,000 articles published that focus on the world of MMA and boxing, including news, event previews, results, analysis, and op-eds.