St. Pierre: "If there's a fighter who can beat Chimaev, it's Whitaker"

Former UFC champion in two weight categories George St. Pierre expressed the opinion that former middleweight titleholder Robert Whittaker has a high chance of winning the fight with Hamzat Chimaev.

The fight between the Australian and the UAE-based Chechen will take place on June 22 at the UFC's debut event in Saudi Arabia.

"If there is a fighter who can beat Chimaev, it's Robert Whittaker, because if you look at Chimaev, we can compare him to Yoel Romero. Romero was a very good fighter, very explosive and powerful, and Whittaker was his kryptonite.

Stylistically, he is quite capable of doing the same thing to Chimaev to put him at a disadvantage. Robert has a very unusual style that is based on karate.

Fighters who use karate have a completely different style. We use different timing for striking and the way we control the distance seems very unusual for our opponent because most guys in MMA do kickboxing or Muay Thai, so karate gives you an advantage in controlling the distance," Bloody Elbow quoted the Canadian as saying.

The fight between the Australian and the UAE-born Chechen will take place June 22 at the UFC's debut event in Saudi Arabia.

"If there is a fighter who can beat Chimaev, it's Robert Whittaker, because if you look at Chimaev, we can compare him to Yoel Romero. Romero was a very good fighter, very explosive and powerful, and Whittaker was his kryptonite.

Stylistically, he is quite capable of doing the same thing to Chimaev to put him at a disadvantage. Robert has a very unusual style that is based on karate.

Fighters who use karate have a completely different style. We use different timing for striking and the way we control the distance seems very unusual for our opponent because most guys in MMA do kickboxing or Muay Thai, so karate gives you an advantage in controlling the distance," Bloody Elbow quoted the Canadian as saying.