Michael Bisping believes a Khamzat Chimaev fight announcement is close, after revealing on his Believe You Me podcast that the middleweight contender is currently based in Newport Beach, California, and showing clear signs of being in structured fight preparation.
The former UFC middleweight champion disclosed he was heading to Newport Beach to meet with Chimaev in person as part of his work with the Jackson-Wink podcast. Bisping described the Chechen fighter as being in the area alongside a large entourage, joking that the group would “stand out like sore thumbs” in the Southern California coastal city.
More to the point, Bisping drew a direct line between Chimaev’s presence there and a fight being near. “From what I understand, he’s in a camp or starting camp or doing a pre-camp,” Bisping said. “So that would lead me to believe that he’s fighting soon.”
For a division that has spent considerable time waiting on Chimaev to return, that read carries weight. Bisping is not given to idle speculation on fighter timelines, and a scheduled face-to-face with Chimaev adds credibility to the suggestion that something concrete is taking shape.
As for who Chimaev might be preparing to face, Bisping and co-host Paul Felder pointed to Nassourdine Imavov as the most logical name. The French-Russian contender has been among the more active and consistent performers in the middleweight division over the past two years, and his ranking makes him a credible match for a fighter returning at Chimaev’s level. Neither host presented this as confirmed, but the conversation treated it as the expected outcome given the current shape of the division.
If that fight is what Chimaev is building toward, then the Newport Beach camp and Bisping’s upcoming sit-down could be arriving right as a formal announcement is being put together.
The anticipation around any Chimaev booking is partly a product of how rarely they come. Reviewing his record on air, Bisping noted that Chimaev has fought just once per year over each of the last three years, with bouts in August 2025, October 2024, and against Kamaru Usman in 2023. Before that, he managed two fights in 2022 and one in 2021, a stretch that stands in contrast to the three-fight run he put together during his breakout 2020 campaign.
That pattern has drawn criticism from within the division. Sean Strickland has made his frustration public. But the more immediate development is what Bisping is reporting firsthand: Chimaev appears to be in a structured training environment, and those positioned to speak with him directly believe a fight is coming.
Bisping’s full conversation with Chimaev is expected to appear on the Jackson-Wink podcast in the coming days. Given that Bisping was treating the Newport Beach camp as strong evidence of an imminent booking, that interview may bring the clearest picture yet of where Chimaev’s return is headed and who is waiting on the other side of it.
