His jiu-jitsu trainer, Alan Finfou Nascimento, expects an impressive win over Diaz at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas but revealed to Sherdog.com that Chimaev is not in a rush to challenge for welterweight gold in the event of a victory.
“Of course our priority would be the title bout, but in case UFC wants to make the trilogy between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman, he would like to do a fight in the middleweight division,” Nascimento said.
The coach also thanked Caio Borralho for his help with Chimaev’s camp over the past couple weeks.
“Caio came to help us, he added a lot to the preparation, and he's with us here in Vegas,” Nascimento said. “I hope he continues to help us. He's a top fighter, and he helped Chimaev a lot.”
According to Nascimento, Chimaev will go with him to Rio de Janeiro after the fight for the premiere of the film "Faixa Preta,” which is about legendary jiu-jitsu champion Fernando Terere, who trained Finfou. While there, Chimaev is expected to visit the academy run by Jose Aldo as well as the Cantagalo slum, where Terere initially discovered Nascimento. As a former Chechen refugee based in Sweden, Chimaev sees many similarities between the Brazilian slums and his life in the eastern European country.
“He really wants to visit Aldo's academy, he's a huge fan of his,” Nascimento said. “He also wants to know Cantagalo and a little of my history. His life in Chechnya was very similar to life in our slum, so he identified with me because I am a favela man. It's going to be an honor to have my pupil there.”