Ansar Khamzaev is the new LFA lightweight champion, and he didn’t wait long to start shopping for bigger opponents. The 21-year-old submitted Juliano Prescendo with a D’arce choke at 3:20 of Round 1 in the LFA 245 main event Friday night at the Seneca Niagara Event Center in Niagara Falls, New York. Then he told Rashad Evans in the cage that he’d beat Justin Gaethje today.
The vacant belt was on the line, and Prescendo came in with twice as many pro fights as the kid across from him. It didn’t matter. Khamzaev found the D’arce in the first round, and that was that.
The post-fight interview is where it got fun.
View post on X
“I feel amazing. I’m already tired of beating these guys,” Khamzaev told Evans, per Bloody Elbow. “Give me Brazilians, Americans, the best fighters in the world. I’ll beat them anyway. I told you, right now, if Justin Gaethje [was] put in this cage, I’ll beat him. That’s how confident I am. I’m the best in the world. Nobody train like me, I live in the gym.”
The numbers
Khamzaev, a Chechen-American fighter who goes by “Borz,” moved to 6-0 back in May with a win that took 96 seconds. The Prescendo finish makes him 7-0 and gives him his fifth submission win. Cageside Press noted that four of his wins before Friday had come in LFA and five of them ended inside the distance. Prescendo, from Brazil, walked in 2-1 under the LFA banner.
He’s got a famous name in his corner, too. Khamzat Chimaev brought Khamzaev onto his team earlier this year and said at the time that the young fighter would be a future champion if he kept putting in the work. So far the kid is holding up his end.
View post on X
As for Gaethje, nobody knows yet whether the reigning UFC lightweight champion will fight again. That hasn’t stopped people from lining up. Bloody Elbow reported that Paddy Pimblett wants a second crack at him before he retires, and Alexander Volkanovski has floated Gaethje’s name as well. Khamzaev just added himself to the queue from a regional promotion in upstate New York, which takes some nerve.
Fans on X spent the night demanding a contract. “They need to sign him ASAP,” one wrote, according to Bloody Elbow.
Rest of the card
In the co-main, featherweight Tom Picciano took a unanimous decision over Santos Verdinez with three 29-28 cards. Welterweight Alberth Bahamondes needed exactly one minute to knock out Joey Hart. Light heavyweight Wildemar Santos choked out Sharaf Davlatmurodov with a rear-naked choke at 3:23 of Round 3, and Shealor Ladd did the same to Matt Adams at 1:30 of Round 1. Lance Wright flattened David Wright in 52 seconds at middleweight, and Aline David stopped Naomie Young with knees at 3:49 of Round 3 at strawweight.
View post on X
My take: no, a 7-0 kid with an LFA belt isn’t beating Justin Gaethje right now, and somewhere deep down Khamzaev probably knows it. I don’t care. I’d take a 21-year-old who grabs the mic and names the champ over another prospect thanking his sponsors and promising to take things one fight at a time. He answered the question straight, he backed it up with a first-round choke on a guy with double his experience, and he’s on Chimaev’s team. The UFC has a Contender Series slot or a short-notice phone call with his name on it. Somebody should make it before another promotion does.