Rising UFC star Khamzat Chimaev has been backed to be the next Conor McGregor by former top heavyweight Brendan Schaub.
Chimaev is one of the UFC's hottest prospects and is linked to fight No.2 ranked welterweight Gilbert Burns in his first fight of the calendar year.
UFC 273 on April 9 is a discussed date for the pivotal matchup at 170-pounds, although the fight is yet to be finalised by the promotion.
'Borz' has gone 4-0 since debuting for the UFC and only started training MMA in 2016 after watching McGregor's title fight with Jose Aldo at UFC 194.
And Schaub - who used to compete in the UFC - thinks the No.11 ranked welterweight Chimaev is exactly what the promotion has been looking for.
"I would bet my bottom f***ing dollar that [Khamzat Chimaev] is gonna be running that f***ing division for quite some time," he said on ' The Schaub Show '.
"I'm telling you man that guy's f***ing scary... It's just a matter of time Khamzat beats the No.2 guy. "If he just mops the floor with him, the UFC has been looking for something like this since [Conor McGregor].
"To me, he's scarier, man. He's way scarier, yeah. Just his mentality like, 'Oh, this guy was born to f***ing fight.'"
Chimaev has previously cited the huge paydays McGregor received for fighting in the UFC as the reason he got into MMA.
The Russian is open to switching between 170-pounds and 185-pounds in the UFC and has vowed to dethrone current champions Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya.
He set promotional records for the fastest consecutive wins and fastest three-fight winning streak in modern UFC history in 2020.
But he was then hospitalised multiple times after battling lingering Covid-19 complications and was forced out of three bookings against Leon Edwards.
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Chimaev even considered retiring from fighting because of his health issues, but returned to the octagon last October to submit Li Jingliang in another one-sided display.
A win against former title challenger Burns would put Chimaev at the top of the ladder for a 170-pound title shot.
And Schaub can't see any other fighter giving Chimaev a tough time in the cage apart from Usman.
“I don’t see anyone beating him. I’m not saying he steamrolls through him right now, but with Kamaru’s injuries, I don’t know how much Kamaru has. I don’t know.
"Khamzat obviously had the Covid s*** but other than that, I don’t know who beats him. “He’s very Khabib-ish, but he has more power in his hands. His mentality, it’s scary s***.”
