Chael Sonnen includes Bo Nickal in his list of desired opponents for new UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.

Dana White announced that Reinier de Ridder will face Anthony Hernandez on October 18, with the result of this matchup and the main event of UFC Paris next month being used to decide the next challenger. One of the four fighters in the running to challenge Chimaev has already started to have some thoughts about how he would prepare for such a task.

The dust has settled following UFC 319 in recent days, but heavy criticism still surrounds former champion Dricus du Plessis in his middleweight title loss.

UFC CEO Dana White expressed a willingness to grant Chimaev his wish if he's serious about it. If it comes to fruition, de Ridder thinks he is the correct contender to be standing on the other side of the cage.

Russian UFC heavyweight Sergei Pavlovich told Telecomasia.net that he doesn’t see Khamzat Chimaev having prospects in the heavyweight division after Chimaev’s win over Dricus Du Plessis.

Khamzat Chimaev was completely dominant in his victory over Dricus du Plessis to become middleweight champion at UFC 319 but he also faced criticism for not taking more risks and instead mostly just relying on his wrestling for takedowns and control time to win the fight.

Whittaker, who was quickly submitted by Chimaev at UFC 308, went on to lose his second-straight fight to Reinier de Ridder (21-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) last month in the UFC on ABC 9 headliner. De Ridder was able to survive a Round 3 knockdown to outlast Whittaker.