It appears that COVID-19 has had a greater impact on Khamzat Chimaev than anyone may have realized.
Chimaev contracted the corona virus disease back in November, and has since been forced to pull out of a fight against Leon Edwards twice while dealing with complications. While it was initially believed that it was just irregularities in medical tests that were preventing him from steeping into the cage, his manager says that the reality is much, much more severe (H/T Fightful).
“The other day when he finished training, on Tuesday, he couldn’t even walk up to his room,” Majdi Shammas told Frontkick Online. “He didn’t even have the energy to walk up to his room. He fell asleep in the lobby.”
“He can’t train. His friends called me and said, ‘Hey, Khamzat can’t even speak. His fever is so high, his headache is so much, you know, his muscle pain and everything.’ Then an ambulance came and got him to the hospital,” Shammas continued. “Even when he was in the hospital he called me like, when he called me he thought he was going to die. He was really bad.”
Chimaev made an immediate impact upon his arrival to the UFC. He dominated John Phillips in his debut on Fight Island before finishing Rhys McKee in the first round ten days later. A 17-second knockout over Gerald Meerschaert in September firmly entrenched him as one of the top prospects in all of MMA, but his COVID diagnosis has kept him on the sidelines since then. Here’s hoping that Khamzat Chimaev is able to make a full recovery and live his life normally again sometime soon.
Should the UFC rebook Khamzat Chimaev vs Leon Edwards? Who else should he fight?