Three months of nothing but air conditioning may have played a factor in Chimaev’s recent illness, which has now been diagnosed as a lung infection.
Khamzat Chimaev is back in Chechnya after spending a turbulent three weeks going in and out of hospitals in Dubai.
Whatever mystery illness that struck him down also wrecked his chance to headline the first UFC card in Saudi Arabia. There’s talk of him fighting at an upcoming October pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi, but is he healthy enough to book?
In an extensive interview with Aslanbek Badaev on the shores of Lake Kezenoyam, “Borz” sounded optimistic about a successful comeback.
“I consulted with various coaches, they said three weeks in the mountains will do me good,” he said. “I had a lung infection and all sorts of health problems. Now everything has passed and we are recovering. They say three days in the mountains will do it. Yeah, I like it, it’s comfortable. I’m home.”
Chimaev believes the Middle Eastern climate may have played a part in why he got sick.
“This is completely different. Deserts, in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, there is no air to breathe. So you wake up, just go out and breathe deeply, you know. There is no such thing. There is air conditioning. You go in the car, air conditioning. This is probably why I also developed illnesses. I was there for a long time. For three months I prepared diligently, and something went wrong little by little.”
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has called Chimaev home for rehabilitation back in 2021 when COVID-19 almost ended his career. Apparently Khamzat is once again getting the best medical attention the Caucasus have to offer.
“I didn’t have any doctors like this there,” Chimaev said. “Immune failure. We rested a little for a week, we rested, but I didn’t recover. I went to the hospital and had severe headaches. They said it was stress, that’s what was explained to me. I was in the hospital for two days, then I was at home for a week. Then it started again: three days later the same thing happened, I ended up in the hospital again.”
Now the middleweight contender is preparing to push himself in the gym and see what happens.
“All antibiotics are now finished. The second week we were slowly getting into shape and starting to train. We were running purely, but now this week we started to fight … I heard that Dana White wants me to fight in Abu Dhabi. I think if we rush now, we will see how the first stage of preparation goes. Most likely we will fight then.”