Unbeaten middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev has shared some new details regarding the “violent” illness which forced him from a UFC Saudi Arabia main event fight with former champion, Robert Whittaker last month, which included a series of trips to hospital.
Chimaev, who currently boasts an undefeated 13-0 professional record as well as the number eleven rank in the official middleweight division, has been out of action since he last co-headlined UFC 294 back in October of last year.
Out of action since last year, Chimaev most recently featured against former welterweight champion and pound-for-pound number one, Kamaru Usman, defeating the Auchi native in a close, controversial majority decision win.
And forced from a return last month in a promotional debut in Riyadh, unbeaten contender, Chimaev withdrew from a pairing with former undisputed champion, Robert Whittaker amid an undisclosed “violent” illness.
Khamzat Chimaev reveals battle with “violent” illness
Targeting a return at UFC 308 in October in another outing in the United Arab Emirates, Chimaev revealed he dealt with “severe” headaches as well as a failure in his immune system which forced him from a pairing with Whittaker.
“From the fight of immunity, my immunity had dropped very much, and we wanted to rest a little bit, for a week,” Khamzat Chimaev told Aslanbek Badaev during a recent interview. “I rested and I did not come to my senses – I ended up in the hospital and, to be honest, I had severe headaches.”
“They said it was stress, there was something there, they explained to me,” Khamzat Chimaev explained. “I was in the hospital for tow days, then I was home. A week [i was] like this. Three days later, the same thing happened again, I ended up in the hospital again.”
Who would you like to see Khamzat Chimaev fight in his return to the UFC?