After a growing feud between the two popular international fighters got a bit too hot, Chimaev is looking to extend an olive branch to his brother from across the Caspian sea.
Let there be peace between Chechen and Kazakh MMA fans.
This is the message currently being pushed by Chechen UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev, who is trying to cool down a hot feud developing with Kazakh fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov. The two countries sit on opposite sides of the Caspian Sea, so it’s unsurprising that there’d be some rivalry when it comes to their top MMA prospects.
But now Khamzat is hoping to bring the two countries together now that he and Shavkat are no longer competing in the same weight class.
“Peace be upon you. Chechens and Kazakhs have always been brother,” Chimaev wrote on social media. “I wish you all health happiness love prosperity, may the almighty this month of Ramadan bring you lots of barakat. In every nation there are people who are not far minded, we wish them well too. May the almighty guide them to the path where they will unite our peoples and not to divide them. InshaAllah! I will try to come to Kazakhstan soon and please my brothers.”
This is a sharp 180 from how things were developing just one week ago. Rakhmonov had recently mocked Chimaev’s nickname “Borz,” which means wolf in Chechen.
“When someone calls himself a wolf,” he wrote above a picture of himself sitting on a chair covered in wolf pelts. “Wolves are below us!”
“To be called a wolf is an honor than to be a jackal in life,” Chimaev responded.
Many of these aggressive posts have since been deleted. Perhaps both men realized there was no point to the jawing back and forth now that Chimaev is moving to middleweight while Rakhmonov remains at welterweight.
Or maybe this is another situation where Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has stepped in to force the appearance of unity amongst regional fighters. That’s what he did after a near-brawl at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi where members of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s team tried to start a fight with Khamzat Chimaev.
Since then the tensions between the Dagestani and Chechen fight teams have simmered down. Will it be the same with Kazakhstan?