Khamzat Chimaev is eager to get into the Octagon this weekend in Abu Dhabi.

The UFC middleweight contender, a perfect 13-0 in his career, faces what is, on paper at least, the toughest matchup of his career this weekend at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi when he will attempt to become just the third man in a decade to defeat the former champion Robert Whittaker.

The fight just over a year since Chimaev’s last fight, a majority decision win over the former 170-pound champion Kamaru Usman which itself came more than a year after his previous fight against Kevin Holland — a noticeable lag in activity compared to his blistering start with the organisation in which he won his first three fights in just over 60 days (including two wins in just 10 days back in the summer of 2020).

And while much of that inactivity was the result of injury and some health troubles, Chimaev says that he is now fully healthy and eager to make up for lost time.

“It’s hard,” Chimaev told The Mac Life and other reporters Wedenesday in Abu Dhabi when questioned over his spell on the sidelines. “Always when you want to do your job and you can’t do it and you [don’t] get the money, it’s hard. But thanks God, I’m here, I’m ready and I’m going to go in for my victory and take my money, go home, be happy.”

But as for the test that many predict Whittaker will provide, Chimaev says he won’t know if this is true until they begin trading blows.

“I don’t know, we will see in the cage,” he said. “Anyone on the top can be a hard fight, somebody could be an easy fight. We will see. Maybe it’s an easy fight, maybe it’s a hard fight. We don’t know.

“[Whittaker] knows how to lose. We don’t know, so I’m ready for the victory.”